CLANDESTINE – Cleaning

Set sometime before Southern Raiders: Zuko learned every way possible to track the avatar during his journey. He knows that there is no one better at it than him, which means he should be the best at hiding any tracks.

He got into the habit right before he joined the avatar. If it hadn't sounded an alarm in the back of Zuko's mind, it would have been funny how easily he tracked his new allies after the eclipse. Following them in a large airship should have made them worried, but Zuko knew they hadn't noticed him for miles. Even when he was sure Sokka had caught sight of him at one point, all it took was one clever pull on the controls of the balloon for the runaway prince to find cover in clouds.

They were still careless.

He landed the balloon far enough away so that they wouldn't be suspicious, but Zuko could still follow them easily by the bit of fur that came off of Appa and his footprints. Luckily, he knew the land well and knew they were headed to the air temple even before he tracked them all the way there.

It ended with him being more of a housekeeper than anything. Zuko followed the clues the group left behind out of habit and ended up covering their tracks as he went. He collected any strange fur, got rid of any footprints (however light), cut any broken branches and twigs, and collected any crushed leaves or other crushed plant life that may give them away.

After Aang let him join them he fully realized just how much stealth the group lacked.

Which is why today, like every other day, Zuko was covering the tracks he could find while collecting firewood and any tealeaves he recognized from travelling with Uncle. He'd finished training Aang a few hours ago and dinner would be ready soon—the sun was almost completely done setting. Luckily a fire bender walking around these parts wouldn't be a giveaway if anyone were to see him. Which was doubtful, since he was the only person on his team that actually seemed to know how to stay hidden.

You know if you don't count the times he almost got caught in the earth kingdom— which were not at all his fault, for the record.

He sighed deeply from exhaustion, and dropped down next to the pile of twigs and logs he'd collected. There was a large, perfectly circular hole in front of Zuko with a pile of ash in the middle. He'd spent the last half hour trying to burn leaves and debris he'd collected and it had taken a lot out of him. The setting sun set a timer on how long he could wait idly for everything to burn. So Zuko had to raise the temperature of the fire as much and as often as possible through bending.

Snap!

Zuko's shoulders tensed as his hands inched toward the hilt of the dual swords on his waist. He kept his breathing steady and focused on his hearing. And then he tuned into the footsteps of someone behind him to the right.

Whoever it was, was either coming or going from the temple. No bending, he reminded himself. I don't wanna burn one of them again. He felt a too familiar pang of regret at the thought of burning Toph's feet not too long ago.

The person stopped walking. He stood and turned in the direction of the sound, pulling the dual swords out. Out of habit, he spun them in a full circle in his hand before taking his stance. "Who's there?" Zuko's voice was a steady warning to whoever was hiding.

Nothing.

He had decided to use his cloak to wrap the wood instead of carrying it in his bare hands again. Had that been a stupid and indulgent action on his part? What if they'd seen his scar and realized who he was?

"Answer me!" His patience was running thin.

He heard leaves shift and covered his swords in flame, prepared to launch the fire in the direction of the stranger. But his swords stopped in an "X" shape in front of his chest as he saw the angry blue eyes of a certain water bender who still refused to trust him. The flames snuffed out in an instant and Zuko put his swords away nervously.

The last thing he needed was Katara thinking he was about to attack her.

"Sorry," he mumbled and turned back to the hole, leaving his back open to her. It was a sign of vulnerability that Uncle had once told him was a symbolic gesture that showed trust to his comrades. Zuko had disagreed and said it showed weakness. If he were honest, with any of the others back at the temple this would now be an easy gesture of trust but with Katara he could never be sure she wouldn't take the opportunity to lash out at him. Not that he'd blame her.

He heard her walk closer. "What are you doing out here?" her tone was as accusatory as always.

Zuko stretched his arms out before kneeling next to the hole and a pile of dirt he had already collected before he started burning everything. "Cleaning," he said.

She scoffed. "Cleaning?"

He began to push the dirt into the hole, getting back to the task at hand. Inside, Zuko couldn't help but seethe at the fact that he'd have to follow her tracks on the way back to the temple to take care of what she'd left behind. "Yeah," he answered.

"A hole?"

"An earth bender's hole," he clarified, hoping that would be enough.

She was silent for a bit as he finished covering everything. There was still about a centimeter of dipped earth left. Zuko stood and dusted his hands off looking for any areas left in the clearing that he could steal from. "Why?"

He sighed, more like groaned, at that question and finally turned to face her. "Haru left a perfect circle of removed dirt in the ground no more than a few miles away from the temple. So, I'm cleaning up after him in case somebody walks here, sees the hole, realizes there are earth benders nearby, and does something about it."

Zuko marveled at how quickly her face turned from angry to guilty. "Oh."

His hand went up to his head and he ran his fingers through his hair to keep from sighing again. "I'm almost done here," he said calmly. "I finished gathering the firewood a bit ago. It's wrapped, if you want to take it back before me." He offered her a weak smile, a sign of peace. He didn't want to argue with her, he just wanted to finish what he was doing and not give her any other reasons to worry about him.

She turned away from him and shrugged. "Like you said, you're almost finished. I'll just wait and walk back with you."

His head bobbed up and down. Zuko bit the inside of his cheek. He knew she just wanted to keep close in case he really was scheming something. Good for both their sakes, he wasn't. He wouldn't. Not anymore.

Zuko walked over to a large tree where some loose dirt was visible. There were also a few stone he could grab to not make the covered mess look so obvious. Well, as long as it didn't look like an earth bender made the hole, it didn't matter.

As soon as he finished covering everything a large disk of ice fell on top of his cover-up, nearly hitting him in the head. The disk turned back into water and slithered into Katara's waterskins. "It'll look less obvious if the dirt's sort of packed and not that loose mess you left," she said as way of explanation.

He smiled. "Thanks."

She looked at him expectantly. He rushed to pick up the firewood and followed her as she started walking back. He would come back at night or tomorrow to take care of her tracks.

"So," Katara said after a few minutes. "Do you always do this?"

Zuko glanced at her and noticed she wasn't looking at him. He followed her lead and kept his attention forward. "Don't tell the others."

He could feel her eyes burning into his skull now. "Why not?"

The sky was mostly purple and red now, he noticed. It made everything quieter somehow. "I don't want anybody feeling bad," he answered honestly. "Plus, it's sort of become a ritual for me. It's relaxing."

"Right." Her tone was still cold, but she seemed satisfied with his answer for the most part. "I'm sure you're used to stopping anyone else from finding us."

He wanted to snap at her, he really did. Instead, he breathed in and worked on keeping the fire inside him from bursting out his lips.

Zuko knew his voice came out tense from the undercurrents of anger when he spoke. "It's a new habit. I started doing it after I decided to join the avatar—"

"Aang," she interrupted with an ardor more often seen in the fire nation than the water tribes.

"When I decided to join Aang and all of you," he corrected. "I figured if I could find you guys so easily, so could somebody else."

She was quiet for a long while after that. The only sound came from their footsteps and the shifting weight in Zuko's arms. A few yards away Zuko saw an aardvark sloth creeping into its home. He could hear badgerfrogs croaking in the distance. IT would have been peaceful if the stiff silence from his companion hadn't lasted so long.

So long in fact that they could finally see the temple when she finally said something. "I don't get it." True to her words, her voice came out airy and full of confusion.

"Hm?"

She stopped walking and Zuko noticed their feet were now standing on stone rather than grass or soft dirt. Her eyes were piercing, but they didn't hold the anger or deceitful gleam that he was so familiar with from growing up with Azula. They were stern, yes, but vulnerable in how guarded she was forcing herself to be. Honest, he thought. She was too transparent for her own good.

"Why don't you want them to know?" Her voice was softer than earlier, but still terse enough that he knew she wasn't speaking to him as if they were friends. "You're going around secretly hiding any tracks we leave behind just for the sake of it? Because you want to? And you don't want them to find out because they'll feel bad? If they knew, none of them would doubt your loyalty anymore. They'd be convinced on the spot."

"Are you?" Zuko knew what she said wasn't true, even if she believed it. To her, this could be another scheme. A well-devised plan to make her like him. Or worse, a plan to make the others turn on her for disliking him. Unfortunately, he wasn't half as crafty as Azula. If he were, he would have captured the avatar a long time ago. He had a hard time seeing what was the right path for a long time, but that didn't mean Zuko was ever a very good liar. General Zhao taught him that.

"No. I'm not convinced," she admitted.

"I'm not doing this to win you over. I'm here to train Aang, which I have been doing for awhile now." Zuko's voice was even and he took a step forward. His eyes stayed on hers and, though he had no way of knowing, it made Katara nervous. "My whole life was chasing any lead I could find to capture the avatar. If the only good I can pull away from my past is being able to cover any tracks I would have used back then to find you, then I'll take it."

Her gaze was less guarded now, but he could now see doubt clear as day clouding the blue of her eyes. Zuko wondered, not for the first time since he joined them, if she spent every moment around him wondering if he'd betray her all over again.

Her bottom lip trembled as she tried to speak. "I don't believe you," she said. Her voice was low, almost hoarse.

Zuko closed his eyes and involuntarily gulped. His throat felt soar and a deep pain rested inside his ribs. He wanted her to believe him, he did. But he didn't expect, or even want, to prove himself by just moving a few sticks around. "That's alright," he whispered.

She took a deep, shaky breath but didn't look away from him.

"Maybe," he started, opening his eyes. "Maybe if I can prove it to myself, I'll be able to show you too."

Katara bit her shaking lip but pretended like she wasn't trying to keep herself together in front of him. "What?"

He smiled down at her sadly and pulled the wrapped logs closer to his chest. Not for the first time, Zuko questioned how things would have been if he'd chosen the right side—her side—when she'd offered him a different way to regain his honor in the catacombs.

"I'm trying to prove to myself that I'm good. That I can be good," he said. "If I'm able to do that, maybe…"

His voice trailed off seeing her face soften completely. A ghost of an image, of Katara holding a dying Aang in her arms while looking up at him and the rest of her enemies, floated up from his memories.

"Maybe I can prove myself to you," he finished. With that he turned away from her with heaviness in his chest. Zuko ignored the lead in his feet and kept walking into the temple.

Maybe I can be good enough for you, he thought sadly.

After a few steps, he heard her walk too. This time, she stayed several feet behind.

X

AN:/ Ta-dah! Done! Okay, again a day late. I think I may have to resign myself to this fate unfortunately. I hope this was good. I was just thinking how much I missed the pre-Souther Raiders Zutara fic that littered the Internet back in the day. I wanted to make my own contribution! Happy Zutara week!