018 - Truth
I wanted to do something serious for a change, and man I cannot tell you how hard it was not to throw in a humorous line at various places (mostly the end), even if it was romantic humor, like somebody getting glomped or smooched real good. You’d think Zuko and Katara would be a fairly angsty couple, but I just keep making fools of them /shakes head/ ._.;;
With this one, I waffled between #16 Love, #36 Kiss, #97 Rain, and #18 Truth. After some commentary and discussion with my sister Jaqq, I finally settled on #18 (though I really, really wanted to do #16...another time, I guess ;))
Author: Jezunya
Prompt: #18 Truth
Word Count: 452
Rating: K+
Summary: “If we can be here, like this, then what in Agni’s name has everyone been talking about?”
Author's Notes: While run-on sentences are at times my weakness, this time they’re intentional. The writing in this is supposed to be very much like a thought process, which of course doesn’t wait around for punctuation or sentence endings. ;)
She’s not sure how it happens, but one second they’re standing knee-deep in a slowly flooding creek with the rain pouring down on top of them and the next second he’s kissing her and she’s kissing him and it doesn’t matter that the rain is turning icy and the wind is blowing hard because he’s warm and his arms are around her and nothing can intrude on this no matter how hard it tries.
It’s amazing - she would have expected to feel weak, to barely be able to stand in the face of the great something that’s rushing toward her as she holds on to him and he holds on to her but instead she feels more steady than ever and she knows the thoughts of his father or the Avatar or his mission can’t touch him now and she wants to stay here just like this if only to see him this perfect all the time.
They have to part some time, though, if only to breathe, and they do after several moments but they don’t move any further than they have to, breathing in each other’s air and ignoring everything outside of their little world of circled arms and wet hair.
He’s staring down at her and she can see when outside thought enters his eyes again.
“Don’t think about it,” she says, a little breathless and more than a little pleading.
His brows lower a tiny bit and she can tell he knows what she means. He shakes his head, sniffing against the water running down his face, and speaks above the whistle and rumble of the wind and rain. “I wasn’t!”
Blue eyes search gold ones and she wants to ask him what he was thinking then, but he beats her to the answer before she can even find the question.
“I was thinking - none of it matters! If we can be here, like this, then what in Agni’s name has everyone been talking about for the last… since the world began! None of it means anything, because we’re here, and everyone said we wouldn’t ever be but we are so they must be wrong!”
She stares at him, finally catching her breath and feeling that inexplicable something roar a mile closer - or maybe it’s already here, mixing in with the rain and washing over them, because she’s been told all the same things about the world as he has and he’s absolutely right and none of it means anything and all she can think as Zuko smiles down at her and pulls her close again to shield her from the rain is that she’s never been so glad to find out her life’s work was utterly meaningless.