This is my first ever story, please don't be too mean if you don't like it.
For Zutara Lovers Everywhere
Disclaimer: I own nothing, please don't sue me.
He had been wondering when she would return. Zukko was having a truly difficult time being around Katara so much- this group vacation was killing him. With no enemy constantly attacking, life was slow and there was much more time to think. And all he could think about was her.
" Hi, Zukko.", she said struggling to juggle all the groceries she was carrying.
"Let me help you with those.", he offered, rushing foward.
"Oh, thanks", said Katara, handing him some and stopping to catch her breath as she put the rest down on the counter of the beach house in which the group was staying. "The market was a madhouse.", she continued, looking out the window to the beach where Sokka and Suki where kissing passionately. "Yech! Those two still grossing everybody out?", Katara asked Zukko who wasn't listening. He was busy imagining that it was instead he and Katara that were kissing and he longed to be that close to her. "Zukko?" Katara shook him gently by the shoulders.
"Sorry- yeah, they're pretty disgusting.", he said, turning red as he regained control of his imagination. Maybe he should just tell her, tell her how he longed to hold her in his arms, and kiss her a thousand times more passionately than Sokka could ever kiss Suki...
"Have you seen Aang?," she asked blankly, " I need to talk to him." Maybe not. Crushed, Zukko meakly replied that Aang was upstairs meditating, and practicing his avatar state.
"Thanks," said Katara, lithely bounding up the stairs, " I owe you one Zukko!" she laughed. He loved that laugh...Get ahold of yourself Zukko, he told himself. She's just a girl and you are Fire Lord. You must have more control than this! But why did she want to talk to Aang? Need she had said. What was so important that she couldn't come to him? They were good friends after all. He had to know. Quietly, he snuck upstairs to Aang's room, where he strained to hear a whispered conversation.
"Aang- it's Zukko's birthday in 2 days, what are we going to do for him? I bought all the ingredients for a cake, but how do we keep it a secret?"
"Here's my plan..." Aang talking, Zukko didn't hear a thing. She was planning for his birthday? She remembered his birthday?! Over joyed he raced down the stairs - louder than perhaps he should have- and busted through the door to walk on the beach and regain control of his now insanely giddy self.
2
Katara's POV
Katara was busily preparing for Zukko's birthday. She wanted it to be a surprie, just to see the smile on his face. How she loved it when he smiled... Despite the fact that she was a commoner and Zukko was royalty, she still held a small hope in her chest that someday they would be together. Katra shifted the cake mix around in the bowl. She must not think of that. She couldn't, it hurt far too much. Zukko had Mai, and she- she had Aang. But the very thought of kissing Aang brought terrible despair. When would she face it? When would she realize that she and Aang were never meant to be together? But she and Zukko...fire and water...
"Stop it Katara", she told herself aloud. "Just make his cake- it's too early for romantic musings anyway." It was too early even to be making a cake in fact. It was 4 in the morning; on average the others didn't get up until 8. But Katara couldn't sleep anyway. she couldn't stop thinking about stupid Zukko. Why did he come on this vacation anyway? she thought in a sudden fit of rage, He has too many responsibilities as Fire Lord. Part of her wanted to believe that he had done it to be close to he- but then, why had he taken Mai along? Katara shoved the cake into the oven quite angrily, and it made a loud clanging noise that could have woken a polar bear. Oops. Silently she hoped that no one would wake up, and then she started to sob.
"Stupid Zukko.", she said, " I know we can't be together but its so unfair!"
"I know."
"Aah! Zukko- how long have you been -er- standing there?", Katara was as red as could be- she hoped he couldn't see in the early morning darkness. He slowly strode towards her, taking a seat at the kitchen table.
"It really is unfair." Oh Spirits! He'd probably been there longer than she thought.
"What's unfair?", she laughed nervously, hoping to throw him off.
"That we can't be together!", he said kicking over the nearest chair. "I've wanted to tell you- but we just can't!"
"Why?", she paused, walking towards him, wanting to calm him, ease his distress. "Zukko..."
"No- it's not fair to Mai and Aang! They love us- we can't just do this to them!" Zukko was angry. Angry was Katara's specialty. If he was going to yell, she could yell, too.
"Then why did you bring her along?!", she asked fiercly. "If you don't love her, why pretend?"
" It's complicated, ok?! I do love her- but every time I'm with her, all I think about is YOU!!" With that Zukko rose, striding quickly out of the room, and heading upstairs to his chambers. So he did feel the same way she did? Katara thought her heart would burst for joy! She would surprise him with her delicious cake, and then he'd see how good her cooking skills were and- OH NO! The cake! Katara swooped down to the oven where she saw a happily baking cake.
"Thank Goodness.", she said, and diligently watched the thing until it was ready around 5 o'clock. Still though, despite preparations for a big party, depsite the now obvious fact that Zukko felt the same as she did- all Katara could think about was the problem of Mai and Aang.
3
Zukko was right. It wasn't fair to Mai and Aang. Mai cherished Zukko, had even risked her life for him- what had she done? Nothing. Nothing but make him feel like an outsider by avoiding him all the time. And- then there was Aang. he had told her on mulitiple occasions how he felt about her- and she had made it seem that someday they would be together. Now he followed her around and tried to do boyfriend things like put his arm around her. Originally she had been rather flattered that the Avatar himself was in love with her- but now she realized the mistake she had made by leading him on. It had only intensified his feelings for her, and now she ran the risk of breaking his heart. SPIRITS! Why did this whole thing have to be so fearfully complex? Katara was about to go and sooth her nerves with some water bending on the beach just to relax a bit when Aang came down stairs.
"Morning Katara.", he said sweetly.
"Morning Aang.", shesaid hoplessly.
"What was all that yelling?", he asked, stretching his arms above his head and letting out a great yawn that reminded her of Appa.
" Don't worry about it.", she said, praying he'd ask no further questions.
"What's wrong?", he asked making his way towards her and wondering at the upended chair she had been too distracted to right. "Katara what is it?"
"I just- I just can't decide what flavor frosting Zukko would like more, vanilla or chocolate?" Even though she knew- chocolate hands down. She had seen him scarf it down whenever he had gotten hold of any.
"Katara?" She was snapped out of her reverie.
"Yes Aang?"
" Why don't you love me?" Oh CRAP! Now she had to do it- either break his heart and have a chance with Zukko- or don't and be doomed to be with Aang.
" I- I..."
" Just tell me ok! I'm not a little boy anymore!"
"That's just it Aang- you're only 12 and that's quite a big difference between you and I..."
" Only 3 years! And techinically I'm about 100 years older than you anyway!
" You're more of a little brother to me okay?!", she paused, surprised at her own viciousness.
"Okay." Aang said. Downtrodden, he turned to leave.
"Aang!", Katara stopped him, "I'm sorry."
"It's ok Katara- some things just aren't meant to be." Aang slouched upstairs. Katara felt horrible- but she couldn't help but wonder what Zukko was doing.
4
Zukko's POV
Zukko paced back and forth in his room, wondering what to do next. Did he act on this encounter with Katara or act like it never happened? Was he sure she felt the same way? What would happen to Mai? Did he still love her, or was he projecting his love for Katara into his "love" for Mai? He didn't understand it, why was this so confusing? Either you love someone or you don't, right? Sometimes he wished he could be as heartless and selfish as Azula, but he just didn't have it in him. He cared about both girls, but Katara was the one who dominated his thoughts. He just- needed her, it was hard to make sense of. Frustrated, Zukko lit his hands, and planned to set his beside table ablaze when he heard Katara call his name. Instinctively, hurried down the stairs to make sure she was alright, thinking perhaps she needed his help. But when he reached the bottom of the staircase-
"SURPRISE!!" Katara was there holding an amazing chocolate cake, along with Sokka and Suki, Mai, Aang, and Toph- all holding presents for him. Well this was uncomfortable. Even though Zukko had been hoping to find Katara alone, he still forced a smile that was truly convincing.
"Thank you all so much.", he said graciously. Katara refused to meet his gaze- exactly what he had been hoping to prevent.
"Who made the cake?", he asked sneakily, innocently looking around.
"I did.", said Katara finally- the strain in her voice obvious to him but hopefully to no one else. "Hope you like chocolate." Her eyes locked with his, and for a second he could see all her pain and love shimmering there in her soft blue eyes.
"OK!", said Aang breaking their eye contact by jumping in between them, " Who wants cake?!" An echo chorus of "I do" came from everyone except Zukko and Katara. Everyone could sense that something was going on, and Mai put her hand on Zukko's arm, looking at Katara.
" Is everything ok? Did you two have a fight or something?", she asked, obviously curious and a bit suspicious.
"Yes.", Katara said through gritted teeth. Her acting was pretty good. She broke eye contact and stalked over to the table shere she set the cake down harshly. Confused, Mai slipped her arm through Zukko's and attempted to lead him to the table, but he broke away from her and took his seat far away from Katara, in order to keep up the cherade. Why was she doing this? he wondered. Didn't she want to be with him? But those were questions too complicated to deal with while attempting to act happy and be civil to everyone. So he let them go and tried to enjoy himself. For two days after that, he and Katara did not speak.
5
Katara's POV
Water bending was sure to help her relax. She had to concentrate or she couldn't do it, which meant a much needed respite from thinking about Zukko. He and Mai had gone to market, which meant she didn't have to see him, either. This would mean some truly relaxing time to herself. She gathered up some ocean water and began to make it spin around in a circle. She spun it faster and faster and slowly raised it above her head. She looked up, watching the fish swim around in it, fascinated and intrigued by their elegant bodies. She was just about to throw them back when a stick broke behind her, breaking her concentration and causing the entire water disc- fish and all- to come crashing down on her head.
"Gak!", she shouted, coughing and trying to gather up some water for the gasping fish.
"I'm sorry!", cried Zukko, unsure of what to do to help.
"What are you doing here?", asked a dripping wet and rather disgruntled Katara as she gently put the fish back into their natural habitat.
"I -er- had a fight with Mai- and I came here to calm down.", Zukko said nervously, trying to think of something better to say.
"Oh yeah?, " replied Katara casually, wringing her hair out and glaring at Zukko," What about?"
"She wanted to know what was going on between us- she knows somethings up." Katara blanched. Zukko thought something was going on between them? She gained intense interest instantly.
" There's nothing going on between us...", she said evily, playing him and tricking him into making the first move, because she certainly wasn't going to be the one to blame if Mai came looking for someone to pin it on.
"But I thought...", Zukko stopped, his face illuminated by the slowly setting sun. "When I heard what you said, I assumed you felt the same way as I do...".
"That depends," she said slyly," How do you feel Zukko?" She smiled, the sun behind her setting off all her features, especially her beautiful brown hair that complimented her eyes so well.
"Katara..."
"Yes?"
" You know I'm in love with you. I think about you every second I'm awake. What do you want me to do? I'll do anything, I've already broken it off with Mai. I guess now the question is- do you feel the same?"
"You know I do, Zukko.", Katara replied, shivering a bit from the water which soaked her clothes. She walked toward him, just as the sun fully set.
"Let me dry you off", he said, using a bit of fire bending, which was hard without the sun, but he pulled it off effortlessly. "Come here." She came up closer, so close she could smell his scent- fresh and clean and warm, with a slight singed smell. Without warning, he pulled her into his arms, warming her with his fire bending, holding her close to his heart. "Katara...", he said, " I've loved you since I first got to know you. You're such a powerful waterbender, my complete opposite and equal, and a great and caring leader as well." She looked up at him staring into his beautiful amber eyes.
"I love you too Zukko. I've loved you since we were trapped in Ba Sing Se together. You can imagine how much it hurt when you betrayed me, and how hard it was for me to admit it to myself that I still loved you after that."
"I'm so sorry Katara. I would never do anything to hurt you now. Please, trust me."
"I trust you, Zukko." A wild fire grew up in his passionate eyes, and he gathered her to him and kissed her with all the pent up pain and passion that he had kept hidden all these months. Finally, through heart breaking betrayal, through war, through everything that they had been through, they were together.
6
Zukko's POV
"I've wanted this for so long.", he said, cupping Katara's cheek with his hand and looking longingly into her amazing blue eyes. He wanted her so badly, but first they had to figure out what they were going to do next.
"When did you end things with Mai?" Katara suddenly asked. She seemed to want to know if she was going to be considered a homewrecker because of her love for Zukko.
"Actually- she ended things with me. I guess she could sense that I wasn't as much in love with her as I was with you- and of course she didn't want to be with me after I admitted it. She is already on her way back home. She said she wanted to visit Tai Lee and maybe go and see Azula."
"She wasn't angry?"
"Mai never gets angry. She very rarely lets her emotions show. She considers it a form of weakness, I guess."
"Aang wasn't angry either- just very very sad."
"When did you tell Aang?" Zukko was suddenly very happy, as he could see obstacles to their love melting away.
"The morning of your birthday, shortly after you stomped off. Couldn't you tell? He's been so depressed lately..." There was a note of sadness in Katara's voice that always meant she felt guilty about something.
"Don't feel guilty, Katara. You have to follow your heart, if you ever want true happiness. Aang and you weren't meant to be, and I know that he can see that just as well as I can. " She looked up at him miserably. Tears filled her eyes. No- no. He could not stand to see her cry. He couldnt' take it. And so he did the only thing he could to stop her. He kissed her again, deeper and more fully than the last time, exploring her mouth with his, and taking his sweet time to enjoy it. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her close and was pleasantly surprised when he felt her nestle her head into his chest.
"I just didn't want to hurt anybody.", she said.," But you're right. I do have to follow my heart, and I'm glad I did." She snuggled into him, and he could feel a burning sensation in his chest. He finally had the girl he had wanted all this time, and the best part was that she wanted him just as much. As they stood there on the dark beach, with only the moon to see them, they kissed again and again, and talked of past experiences, until they both grew tired and returned to the house.