(no subject)
Woohoo, more fics! One of them is actually posted in my writing LJ because it's fairly long, and so I double-posted it.
Author: tikki-hikki
Prompt: #048--Dance
Word Count: 190
Rating: T
Author's Notes: Why is Katara always in the Fire Nation? Let's put Zuko in the frigid cold!
Bum bum bum bum bum. Men hammer away at taught drum skin while the young women move in a slow, rhythmic, pulsing circle around the room. It is a ceremonial dance of some sort--he does not understand it exactly, but he is not expected to (although he suspects it is to honor the moon, because of the look on Sokka's face).
Zuko sits comfortably on a cushion, looking bored for all the world with his eyes heavy-lidded.
For all the world, of course, that doesn't notice he is watching the graceful, spiraling, gyrating movements of the dark-skinned woman in front of him. Katara's dress clings to her just so, and he likes the way the fabric moves with her (he thanks Agni that this room is warm enough for them to go without parkas). He wonders if she is deliberately moving like that, but realizes (a bit slowly) that's a stupid thought.
Then something is changing, he just notices, more people are joining the line; he sees Katara's hand in front of him, her lips curved into a sensual smile, and his numbed mind realizes what he's supposed to do.
Author: tikki-hikki
Prompt: #055--Enemies
Title:
Word Count: 342
Rating: K+
Author's Notes: I know I'm very new to the fandom and haven't read much Zutara, so I can't be much of a judge on fanfics, but I'm so obscenely critical of what I read, it's almost funny (in the, "Hey, Sokka's girls all die on him," kind of way). In any case, Tempest in a Teacup has to be the best Zutara fic I've read yet. I really hope the author doesn't mind me drabbling in her universe (please do let me know if you'd like me to take this down, AkaVertigo). >_> I keep on imagining all these scenes from the canon while thinking, "What if it were from the Tempest-verse?"
She is more than a match for him now--the moon is full and risen, and the frigid north surrounds them. She switches stances, styles--Water to Fire to Water again, and back and forth some more. He fights back with as much ferocity as ever, and then some. But she has the upper hand.
He dives for Aang, his hand brushing the entranced Avatar's collar, but a tendril of water wraps around his wrist and flips him away, sending him crashing into a wall of ice. He slides down the slippery surface, back aching and breathing hard.
"Please, Zuko," she says, a note of pleading in her voice. "Please, let's stop this." She is standing in front of the Avatar, a bodily shieled between the hunter and his quarry; her stance is stout, resolute, without a gap or hole. He admires her despite himself and the tension--her drive, her determination, her utter mastery, and laments what he knows is truth: with him, she wouldn't be able to have such total control of her element.
"We've been through this before, Katara. If you want to stop, then give me the Avatar. I will not, I cannot, give up my honor for--" he does not finish (he cannot finish), instead taking a stance and clenching his fists, sending flames trailing back like daggers. He charges forward, fire blazing, sweat rolling down his forehead and neck.
It is futile. Water surges forward in tidals, freezing him to the wall. He struggles, furious.
Her arms thrown wide open, her whole body now openly pleading--there are tears in her eyes. She cries more easily now.
"When are you going to wake up, Zuko?! When are you going to realize that honor isn't something your father can just give and take at will--it's something personal! It's something inside of you!"
Katara's words strike a chord within Zuko--he finds himself yearning to agree with her. But they don't have the chance to take hold.
This is war, there is a battle, they are enemies.
The sun is rising.
Author: tikki-hikki
Prompt: #072--Forgiveness
Title: Apology
Word Count: 1,503
Rating: K
Summary: It is just before dawn on the Day of Black Sun. The Avatar and his allies, the army that has risen to follow him, is within the Fire Nation and camped for the night. Katara is unable to sleep, so she rises and begins to prepare for the day ahead. She finds, however, that she is not the only restless one.
Author's Notes: Funny how this one started. Words were stringing together in my head of Katara waking, Katara walking to the stream, and I just had this image in my head of Zuko standing in front of a sunrise. Once I got past that, I had absolutely no idea where this was going. In the end, I'm actually rather pleased with it.
( With a shiver, she wonders how horrible it will feel for him later today--but the thought is, like the rest similar, quickly buried below currents of others in her mind. )
Author: tikki-hikki
Prompt: #084--Flower
Title: Panda Lilies
Word Count: 128
Rating: K
Zuko thrusts his hand out to Katara, his cheeks red and his face turned away in disdainful embarrassment. In his fist is a rather sad-looking white flower.
"Here," he says.
She blinks. And again.
"Take it."
Her hand reaches out to brush the poor blossom. "Is this...a panda lily?"
He is silent, but his cheeks grow redder. Katara smiles and gently pulls the panda lily from his hand, which tucks behind his back with a kind of hurried relief.
"Thank you," she says, her smile widening, and tucks it in her hair. It looks brighter now, much more alive. "How did you know I like these?"
She does not, of course, get an answer. Zuko is not about to admit to consulting with that batty old fortune teller.
Author: tikki-hikki
Prompt: #048--Dance
Word Count: 190
Rating: T
Author's Notes: Why is Katara always in the Fire Nation? Let's put Zuko in the frigid cold!
Bum bum bum bum bum. Men hammer away at taught drum skin while the young women move in a slow, rhythmic, pulsing circle around the room. It is a ceremonial dance of some sort--he does not understand it exactly, but he is not expected to (although he suspects it is to honor the moon, because of the look on Sokka's face).
Zuko sits comfortably on a cushion, looking bored for all the world with his eyes heavy-lidded.
For all the world, of course, that doesn't notice he is watching the graceful, spiraling, gyrating movements of the dark-skinned woman in front of him. Katara's dress clings to her just so, and he likes the way the fabric moves with her (he thanks Agni that this room is warm enough for them to go without parkas). He wonders if she is deliberately moving like that, but realizes (a bit slowly) that's a stupid thought.
Then something is changing, he just notices, more people are joining the line; he sees Katara's hand in front of him, her lips curved into a sensual smile, and his numbed mind realizes what he's supposed to do.
Author: tikki-hikki
Prompt: #055--Enemies
Title:
Word Count: 342
Rating: K+
Author's Notes: I know I'm very new to the fandom and haven't read much Zutara, so I can't be much of a judge on fanfics, but I'm so obscenely critical of what I read, it's almost funny (in the, "Hey, Sokka's girls all die on him," kind of way). In any case, Tempest in a Teacup has to be the best Zutara fic I've read yet. I really hope the author doesn't mind me drabbling in her universe (please do let me know if you'd like me to take this down, AkaVertigo). >_> I keep on imagining all these scenes from the canon while thinking, "What if it were from the Tempest-verse?"
She is more than a match for him now--the moon is full and risen, and the frigid north surrounds them. She switches stances, styles--Water to Fire to Water again, and back and forth some more. He fights back with as much ferocity as ever, and then some. But she has the upper hand.
He dives for Aang, his hand brushing the entranced Avatar's collar, but a tendril of water wraps around his wrist and flips him away, sending him crashing into a wall of ice. He slides down the slippery surface, back aching and breathing hard.
"Please, Zuko," she says, a note of pleading in her voice. "Please, let's stop this." She is standing in front of the Avatar, a bodily shieled between the hunter and his quarry; her stance is stout, resolute, without a gap or hole. He admires her despite himself and the tension--her drive, her determination, her utter mastery, and laments what he knows is truth: with him, she wouldn't be able to have such total control of her element.
"We've been through this before, Katara. If you want to stop, then give me the Avatar. I will not, I cannot, give up my honor for--" he does not finish (he cannot finish), instead taking a stance and clenching his fists, sending flames trailing back like daggers. He charges forward, fire blazing, sweat rolling down his forehead and neck.
It is futile. Water surges forward in tidals, freezing him to the wall. He struggles, furious.
Her arms thrown wide open, her whole body now openly pleading--there are tears in her eyes. She cries more easily now.
"When are you going to wake up, Zuko?! When are you going to realize that honor isn't something your father can just give and take at will--it's something personal! It's something inside of you!"
Katara's words strike a chord within Zuko--he finds himself yearning to agree with her. But they don't have the chance to take hold.
This is war, there is a battle, they are enemies.
The sun is rising.
Author: tikki-hikki
Prompt: #072--Forgiveness
Title: Apology
Word Count: 1,503
Rating: K
Summary: It is just before dawn on the Day of Black Sun. The Avatar and his allies, the army that has risen to follow him, is within the Fire Nation and camped for the night. Katara is unable to sleep, so she rises and begins to prepare for the day ahead. She finds, however, that she is not the only restless one.
Author's Notes: Funny how this one started. Words were stringing together in my head of Katara waking, Katara walking to the stream, and I just had this image in my head of Zuko standing in front of a sunrise. Once I got past that, I had absolutely no idea where this was going. In the end, I'm actually rather pleased with it.
( With a shiver, she wonders how horrible it will feel for him later today--but the thought is, like the rest similar, quickly buried below currents of others in her mind. )
Author: tikki-hikki
Prompt: #084--Flower
Title: Panda Lilies
Word Count: 128
Rating: K
Zuko thrusts his hand out to Katara, his cheeks red and his face turned away in disdainful embarrassment. In his fist is a rather sad-looking white flower.
"Here," he says.
She blinks. And again.
"Take it."
Her hand reaches out to brush the poor blossom. "Is this...a panda lily?"
He is silent, but his cheeks grow redder. Katara smiles and gently pulls the panda lily from his hand, which tucks behind his back with a kind of hurried relief.
"Thank you," she says, her smile widening, and tucks it in her hair. It looks brighter now, much more alive. "How did you know I like these?"
She does not, of course, get an answer. Zuko is not about to admit to consulting with that batty old fortune teller.