Day One: Serendipity

(n): discovering something nice while looking for something else; "looking for a Knut, but finding a Galleon" (Dumbledore, Order of the Phoenix)

"Why do we need a dog?" Zuko grumbled from the squashed black leather couch, barely looking up from Time Magazine. His roommate, Jet, stood over him, arms dramatically slicing the air as the radio's football game blared behind him.

"Every man needs a dog! Haven't you had a dog before?"

"No." Zuko didn't think he'd ever even had a pet before, excluding the decorative koi in their Japanese garden, where his father held elaborate galas to impress his high-ranking guests.

"No wonder you're like this, then." Zuko opened his mouth to prove that it wasn't his lack of a dog that made him who he was today, but Jet was on a roll. "You could remake your childhood—play with it, teach it tricks, go for walks, oh! And pick up babes!"

"Jet, I don't—"

"Okay. I can pick up babes. But listen! It can be a quiet dog that can fit into this apartment—"

"Hold on." Zuko wearily sat up. "How are you going to convince our landlady to get a dog? You know she has about eight cats that she'll kill to protect."

"I already convinced her and paid down an extra security deposit. As long as it's quiet and gets along with cats, she's okay with it." Jet plopped down next to him, looking smugly at him.

"But the supplies and training and—"

"I'll train the dog, and I'll pay for most of the supplies. Come on, Zuko!"

Zuko saw that he was losing the battle. It wasn't a terrible request, unlike the open bar incident at college. He could never look at Ty Lee the same way again.

"Bad news." Jet groaned as Zuko snatched the keys off the kitchen counter.

"What?"

"I can't come with you to the pound. The damn boss at the dojo switched Smellerbee's and my classes around, so I have to be there 'now, or my ass is fired.' You have to go by yourself."

"What breed?" Zuko sighed, picking up a Post-it note and a black ballpoint pen in case it was a complicated mix or an unknown breed.

"A Labrador. It can be a mix; it doesn't matter. I had one when I was a kid, and he was best dog ever. You better get a Lab, Zuko, hear that?"

The pound was well-lit and full of dark metal cages that seemed to encompass every inch of space the building had, leaving a small alley for him to walk through. A cat with one blue eye and one green mewed at him from a small space filled with the essentials and a pitiful ball to play with. Zuko immediately felt depressed as the row of cages went on and on, pausing to stroke a sleeping boxer on the nose.

"Hello." A woman with green eyes and a bright smile greeted him. She stuffed her hands into her faded tan apron and shuffled her purple Vans, twisting her brown ponytail. Her silver, slim nametag read Hi! My name is JIN. "What sort of animal would you like?"

"A Lab. It doesn't matter if it's a mix." Zuko echoed Jet's words mechanically.

"I think we have two. I'll go check and bring them to you. Feel free to look around!" she smiled at him again and scurried off, leaving Zuko awkwardly alone with the cages again.

He decided to roam around, but his sneaker's lace snagged on a lower cage. Bending down to untangle it, he heard joyful barks and soft cooing coming his way.

"Hey," a woman's voice said. "You need help?"

"I got it." Zuko replied, a bit embarrassed. He finally stood up and met bright blue eyes. Contacts? She was smiling at him, her ponytail loose and a few strands sticking out around her pleasant, heart-shaped face. Her nametag was askew on her uniform, but he caught KATARA scratched onto its surface. Wound around her right wrist was a red leash, and attached to it was a small dog with one ear. Zuko took a double take and tilted his head to look at it. The dog stared calmly back at him and wagged its tail.

"He lost his ear in an illegal dog fight." The girl, Katara, explained softly, reaching down to stroke his head. The dog leaned into her touch.

"That's terrible." Zuko exhaled.

"It is. He's such a sweet little guy who was in the wrong place." She smiled at him. "I'm Katara, by the way."

"I know." He blurted. "It's on your nametag." Idiot.

She smiled in reply. "Do you need help?"

"No, thank you." He shifted to his right. "I already had help."

"What did you ask for?"

"A Lab. Jet, he talked me into getting a dog."

"Jet?" She tilted her face curiously. "Who's he?"

"We live together—" Her face fell, and he rushed to rectify the situation. "I mean, we're not together-together—he's my roommate from college. Not that there's anything wrong with such relationships; my friend, Haru, is, and my other friend, Ty Lee, she's bi—"

He stopped when she began to laugh hysterically with cute snorts from her nose, startling the dog slightly. Bending down to pet his head, she calmed herself down, shaking her head. "I get it; I get it." She lifted her head up to grin widely at him. "What's your name?"

"Zuko." he coughed. "Zuko Agni."

"Nice to—"

"Hey, lucky for you, I have the last Lab left!" Jin burst in with an exuberant smile and a frantic, wagging dog desperately trying to create enough friction on Jin's sneakers to catch fire and hopefully melt the bars on some animal's cage. The...creature had a wild look in its eye as it yanked fiercely on Jin's wrist (she winced, but covered it up with a bright smile) and broke free of the leash, snatching Zuko's wallet right out of his pocket as he was bending down to pet it and racing down the hallway to the unknown.

He cursed and chased after it, wondering how the hell he was going to tell Jet about this new reincarnation of Marley who needed two bottles of Xanax. College track really came in handy, but he was panting by the time he snatched the dog's leash and wrestled his leather wallet out of the dripping jaws. He flipped through it and sighed when half of his ten dollar bill was eaten. Glaring at the pooch, who was downright smirking at him, he wrapped the end of the leash firmly around his arm and made the dog heel as they marched back to the two women. The dog barked and whined at him, bent on strangling whatever skin the leash could touch, but Zuko gritted his teeth and imagined all the different ways he could kill his roommate.

He was on his way when he heard fervent pleading from around the corner and slipped behind a stack of cans and bags of food.

"Jin, please, it's only two weeks until my paycheck—"

"I'm so sorry, Katara, but the boss says that he's delayed it long enough. The dog has to...go. Today. Unless he gets adopted, he isn't..." There was a hesitant pause. "Katara, I can't hold him. I can't get fired."

"Jin, please. He's so strong, so sweet, so smart..."

"I know, but he has to. And I'm sorry. But you shouldn't get so attached—"

"I know. But there was something special about him; he needed my help."

"I'll give you a few moments to say goodbye."

Zuko stepped out, and the two quickly turned to face her, Katara trying to wipe her tears away with the edge of her apron. She was sobbing quietly, her face so broken and tragic that Zuko felt his mouth opening before he knew it and saying, "I'd like to see the dog she has, please."

Katara looked up and gaped openly at him, but Jin quietly took the leash from her and led him up to him. Zuko handed the squirming Lab over to Jin and traded dogs, then bent down to really observe the scruffy mutt. It wasn't exactly "cute." It was a mish-mash of different colors, as if someone had fired multiple colors—black, tan, yellow, gray—out of a paintball fun on a canvas of brown. The fur was a child's touch and feel book's dream of different textures—fluffy, scraggly, rough, fine, wooly, and almost bald near the head. The eyes were intelligent, a deep brown that calmly stared back at Zuko. Even though the lack of the ear would have been a bit odd, it didn't matter to him. Zuko almost rolled his eyes as the phrase "love at first sight" came to him, but he smiled quietly and laid his hand on the dog's small head.

"I'll take him, thank you."

Katara's blue eyes were wide as she whispered, "Thank you," as Zuko swiped his credit card with Jin busily getting the necessary paperwork together.

"What's his name?" he asked, as he signed his name in neat, thin calligraphy.

"Noatak." she answered shyly. He nodded and turned to the door, opening it slowly, Noatak trotting behind him with a clickety-clack of his nails against the cement floor.

"You know," he found himself saying before the glass door closed behind him, the bells on the handle jingling. "Why don't you come by the park on Fifth Street on Saturday morning? I'll bring Noatak."

"The hell is that?" Jet swore angrily as Zuko walked in the door of the small apartment with a frustrated growl and a frustrated toss of his hook swords on the kitchen table. "I told you a Lab. What is wrong with you?"

Zuko simply grinned and patted the dog's head.

Notes:

So, Happy Zutara Week 2012! This was my hardest prompt to write, but tell me what you think! Yes, I named the dog after (SPOILER) Amon's real identity.

Please adopt an animal in need of a home near or not near you.