Katara sat boredly in the drawing room of her parent's house trying desperately not to look at the strange younger man that she was being signed away to as he hadn't looked away from her with that naive little smile since they'd entered into the same room. Marriage had never been something that Katara had aspired for, it wasn't something that she really wanted, what she really wanted wast to draw; to have her illustrations, something that she created published for the world to see. As it stood right now, she really didn't see any way that this marriage would help her.
"It was wonderful seeing you again!", her mother stated brightly to the strange boy's mother, giving the woman a kiss on the cheek that was as full of fake emotion as Katara's smile was full of fake enthusiasm. When her parents turned to her, she almost forgot to stand, doing so rushedly and trying not to look as disinterested as she felt as she curtsied towards the boy. His mother smiled at him and elbowed him slightly.
"Aang", she heard her hiss before the boy gave a hurried and awkward bow before being ushered out the door by his mother.
"He's a nice boy", her mother said lightly once they'd gone, Katara rolled her eyes and walked away, "He is!", the woman called after her. She heard her father speak softly as she left the room.
"I'm telling you, you're rushing her into this...", her mother sighed and snorted lightly.
"It's for her own good." Katara realy didn't care, once that car was out of the driveway, she was on her way to her room to get her sketchbook and then out the door.
The docks were her escape, in the midst of it's hustle and bustle of coming and going ships, she stood out like a sore thumb as she sat on the steps of the main office but she hardly cared. The scenes were beautiful, you just had to look harder to see it. Her sketchbook was brimming with pictures of the dock, ships, crates, scenery, and people; it was the place that inspired her the most, not because of any one element but because of all of the elements wrapped into one large package. The docks seemed to have a pulse of its own; it lived and breathed all on its own and she just loved to capture it.
Sitting herself down in her usual place, she turned to a new page in her book and started to sketch a gaggle of men playing cards just a little ways down the way. Perhaps they were too old to work, perhaps they were just taking a break, she didn't know but her mind made a story for them as she hovered tentatively over the paper.
"Hey Zuko, look! That girl's there again.", Zuko was helping a crate down from a pulley system when Jet yelled from his place holding the rope, nodding his head when the dark haired boy looked up as he couldn't point without dropping the crate. "Man, she makes doing this job a little more bearable" Zuko rolled his eyes and went back to helping the crate into it's space on the stack. "Wonder if I could get a date with her.", Jet mused, tapping his chin with one hand halfway forgetting the rope.
The crate fell the last few feet and Zuko had to jump out of the way.
"Hey! Watch it!", he snapped, wanting desperately to either hit or throw something at the playboy but unable to do either. "Pay attention to what you're doing would ya?!" The other boy smiled lightly at his friend, if Zuko hadn't known him better he almost could have believed that he truly was sorry...almost.
Jet was the kind of man to get rid of any of his competition for a lady's attention in any way that he could and Zuko really wouldn't have put it past him to drop a crate on any man who even looked at the same girl with the intention of claiming her as a prize. It was a damn good thing that Zuko wasn't looking because if he had been he probably would have been dead by now.
Before long, the two dock-hands had gotten back to work. Zuko's mistake, though, was not switching places with his coworker. He noticed Jet's eyes straying off in the direction of 'that girl' quite often. Also, when they actually started to lower the next crate, Zuko found himself having to nag Jet quite a bit more. With the crate nearly lowered into place, Zuko saw Jet's eyes stray once again and his hands slacken.
"Hey!" He shouted, moved out of the way just before the crate fell and crushed his feet. He let out a yell of frustration and kicked the wooden side of the cargo that had nearly crushed him. This gave Jet a start and gave his eyes a new distraction.
"C'mon, Zuko. You don't have to be like that-"
"You nearly crushed me again because of that stupid girl!" He took a look over the girl, drawing innocently not too far off. Little did she know how much trouble she was causing. Well, she could just go find a new place to draw her stupid little pictures.
He began to march over to her spot, and he soon heard Jet following him.
"Zuko, don't take it out on her!" The brown-haired young man took a hold of Zuko's arm.
"Since when are you mister chivalry? When it comes to girls, you're such a whack job." He jerked away and marched up in front of this girl who was busy sketching something out on her paper. He was about to speak when she looked up to get another look at whatever she was drawing and noticed him looming over her.
"Umm, can I help you?"
"No, no, no. He's fine, right Zuko?" Jet took his scarred friend by the arm again and tried to pry him away. Unfortunately not much can stop Zuko when he gets into one of his moods. Jet said it was one of the reasons the Asian didn't have a girlfriend. But then again, Jet said there were many reason why he didn't have a girlfriend.
"No, I'm not," Zuko replied firmly, shaking off his friend and glaring back to the young woman. Her blue eyes were like the ocean itself and it took Zuko a bit off guard for a moment. He shook it off and finished, "You need to go find some other place to draw your silly pictures."
The glare that came over Katara's face at the rude boy's declaration was one that rivaled Zuko's in fierceness; putting down her sketch pad with it's half drawn picture of the boy and her pencil, she stood and put her hands on her hips.
"Excuse me? Since when were you the boss?", she asked incredulously, Zuko glared at her.
"You don't belong here!", he snapped, the brunette leaned close to him so that she was almost nose to nose, her glare still on her face as she poked him in the chest with one finger, her other hand staying planted on her hip.
"Who are you to tell me where I belong?!", she hissed, "I have already talked to the dock master and he's told me I can stay as long as I don't go past this stoop; which I haven't!"
The brunette's icey blue eyes met his without fear- a first for him. She opposed him openly and didn't seem the least bit intimidated my his scarred, angry face. Zuko found his mind beginning to get distracted by her looks. Mentally shaking himself out of it he suddenly understood why she distracted Jet so much. He came out of it more irate than before, now at himself as well for being so immature.
"You don't belong here!" He replied to her inquiry. She responded by glaring and poking him in the chest. He didn't appreciate being poked.
"Who are you to tell me where I belong?! I have already talked to the dock master and he's told me I can stay as long as I don't go past this stoop; which I haven't!"
Zuko reacted without thinking and swatted her hand away rather violently. It sounded like it must've stung; it stung on the back of his hand. He took a deep breath to cool down a bit- this was a girl he was dealing with after all. So he made an attempt to reply in a more civilized manner.
"You're being distracting. You come down here from your fancy, expensive house, in your fancy, frilly clothes and you don't expect to get noticed?! I nearly got squashed twice back there because you were distracting him!" He held up two fingers to her face before pointing at a now embarrassed Jet. So much for being civilized. "I actually work, as opposed to that lazy bum who calls himself the dock master-"
"Zuko" Jet tried to interrupt. The teen shook him off.
"I know what goes on around here and I know whether you're sitting on this freaking stoop is gonna bother anyone!"
"Zuko!" Jet tried again. Zuko turned on his heel and yelled his reply.
"What?!" It was too late. Standing not more than a few feet away was the 'lazy bum who called himself the dock master', Zhao. Zuko cringed at his stupidity and froze in place.
"Perhaps you'd like to explain to me what the problem is here, Zuko" The Dock Master spoke up in a calm, yet assertive tone, gesturing to the young woman Zuko had picked a fight with while keeping his eyes on the hotheaded, young Asian.
Suddenly realizing that her hot headedness might just cost this boy his job, Katara bit down any want of letting the boy get yelled at and jumped in, stepping between Zhao and Zuko so that she was the one under that dangerous gaze.
"Excuse me, sir?", Zhao looked at her curiously, his look somehow softening, probably becuase she was a woman and not a man; she hated it when men looked at her like that, they seemed to think that she couldn't do anything. Well she would just show him what she could do. "This was my fault", she said suddenly, "this young man asked me to leave and I got defensive, I shouldn't have snapped at him but you see I am terribly sore from sitting here and it made me irritable."
Zhao watched her and seemed to consider the story, it looked like he bought it well enough, another perk and drawback to being female, men thought you couldn't lie...
"Very well, Katara, I expect you to next time hold your temper or I shall not allow you down here again, as it is your mother doesn't like that I do...", she looked past the brunette and gave Zuko and Jet a stern look. "You two, get back to work." Then he turned and left, leaving all of them there in silence; Katara held her body stiff until he'd vanished into his office, only relaxing once he'd gone. Sighing slightly she started gathering her stuff to leave; she would have to find another place to draw her portraits, which was sad because the one she'd been working on had started out so nice. Well at least until her subject had opened his mouth.
"This was my fault, this young man asked me to leave and I got defensive, I shouldn't have snapped at him but you see I am terribly sore from sitting here and it made me irritable."
Zuko stopped cold and looked at the girl as she suddenly leapt to his defense. What did she think she was doing? He was perfectly used to dealing with Zhao's crap- he and the dockmaster clashed frequently, which often led to extra work. His angry gaze softened to one of simple shock, until Zhao began to look him and Jet over while considering the validity of the young woman's story. His face instinctively hardened again until the dockmaster had made up his mind.
"Very well, Katara, I expect you to next time hold your temper or I shall not allow you down here again, as it is your mother doesn't like that I do... You two, get back to work." Zhao made his decision and returned to his office in a small building not too far off.
Zuko's dark eyes were drawn over to the young woman's direction soon after by a sigh as she began to pack her things. He opened his mouth to say something, but then stopped. He really didn't know what to say. What could he say after the chick he'd just insulted turned around and saved his butt? The only one who currently stood up for him like that was Uncle.
"Hey, Miss! I'm sorry you had to do that," Zuko had to look up as Jet rushed over to the girl and began to help her pack her things before Zuko could do anything. The scarred youth brought his palm to his face. Jet was such a flirt. Jet continued, "Zuko can be pretty rude at times."
"Hey Miss! I'm sorry you had to do that", Katara gave the boy that had come to deter the scarred one's request for her to leave a glance and accepted his help, "Zuko can be pretty rude at times." the boy continued; Katara cracked a smile and spoke without thinking about just what she was saying.
"I suppose it makes up for his pretty face...", she said lightly, gathering quite a few things into her arms before moving to put them in the bag. She'd probably said something that he could have taken as an insult with the scar that was on his face, but in the end what did they know about her? Any reason that they could be mad at her for being here she could counteract with her reasoning, she was here to hold onto her freedom, here to be herself where she couldn't elsewhere.
Jet cast Zuko a worried look at the girl's comment, obviously worried that they would get into another fight over it.
Picking up her pencils Katara found she couldn't hold everything in her arms to arrange them in her bag and sighed again before setting down the open sketchpad with Zuko's portrait in it. It was only about halfway finished, she'd laid the solid lines laid onto the paper but she hadn't shaded it at all; still it was very clearly recognizable as the oriental boy.
"I suppose it makes up for his pretty face..." The young woman's reply was quick but her eyes said she soon realized the gravity of her statement. Zuko didn't know whether to be insulted or not, as she'd clearly spoken without thinking. Zuko closed his eyes and breathed deeply, hoping it would mollify the offense he instinctively took towards her statement. It helped, like his uncle said it would, but not by much. Zuko's hands remained balled into fists as his eyes opened again.
Jet cast him a worried look, and though the Asian's eyes screamed otherwise, he shook his head to show his friend that he was going to let that one pass. While the scar on his was a sore spot, he was sick and tired of getting into a fight every time an insult was jabbed at it.
His friend, regardless of whether he believed Zuko or not, soon turned back to the young lady to help her with her belongings. The brown-haired youth stopped short when he saw the open sketch-pad lying there with his co-worker's likeness on the open page. His first thought was "She's a pretty good artist", his next thought was, "how's Zuko gonna take that?".
Zuko had noticed the sketch soon after she'd set the pad down. Even he didn't know how to react. Without much explanation, though, his face softened. His hands followed suit, the fingers falling limp at his sides.
The image was rough and unfinished, though it was well-done. The lines simply portrayed Zuko as he worked; not doing anything extraordinary, but the way she'd captured him made him look semi-normal. A normal person doing his job. Honestly it wasn't what Zuko thought everyone saw when they looked at him. It really wasn't even what he was when he looked at himself. For her to have seen past the scar...Well, it meant a lot to him.
"You can come back tomorrow," Zuko said, cold tone in his voice. He didn't want her to see how much of an impact the stupid drawing had. Nor did he was Jet to see; then he'd really never live it down. "I just need a break from having my co-worker drop crates on me because he's too busy looking at some girl,"
"You can come back tomorrow…I just need a break from having my co-worker drop crates on me because he's too busy looking at some girl", Katara looked at the oriental boy in surprise as she finished gathering her bag and sketchbook into her arms and standing. She almost asked why he'd changed his mind but then thought better of it.
"Perhaps I could stay if your co-worker could keep his mind on his job instead of in the sheets", she said lightly, understanding why the offensive man wouldn't want a crate dropped on him; she wouldn't want one dropped on her either. Giving something of a polite curtsy; she turned and walked away, leaving the two men to their work.
When she was gone, a long moment of silence passed before Zuko turned to Jet and smirked; he'd just been told off and he knew it.
"Just shut up", the brunette snapped before turning and heading back to work.
"He was so rude to me Ty Lee…", Katara said as she pulled her archery bow tight and let the arrow fly; the acrobat smiled at her lightly, standing on her head.
"If he was so rude, why do you keep going on an on about him?", she asked; Katara stopped for a moment before she aimed another shot, an assistant having retrieved the arrow.
"I'm not", she said indignantly before silence over took them and the brunette returned to her practice; a long moment passed and Ty Lee watched her. "I just don't understand why he had to be so rude" Ty Lee rolled with laughter as her friend pulled back yet another shot.
"Katara I think you like him", the arrow missed the target and the girl turned to her friend in shock.
"Excuse me?", Ty Lee shrugged, her grin still in place.
"I'm just saying…with the way you keep talking about him…" Katara placed an indignant hand on her hip.
"I do not like him!", the acrobat grinned and held up her hands innocently.
"Alright, alright, my mistake…", the brunette shook her head at the acrobat and aimed another shot; she didn't like him, she couldn't have, she'd just met him and he hadn't been at all polite to her. The only nice thing that he'd done was tell her that she could come back the next day and that couldn't really be counted because she would have showed up whether or not he'd said she could anyway.
'I do not like him', she told herself sternly.
After his statement, the girl gave him a look of surprise. Zuko wasn't surprised in the least. He'd been a tremendous jerk and a look like that was to be expected. It was his was of withdrawing his anger- even if a prissy rich-chick really shouldn't be hanging around the docks.
"Perhaps I could stay if your co-worker could keep his mind on his job instead of in the sheets", The girl replied, standing up straight with all of her things finally gathered. The Asian had to stifle a laugh, as the young woman said the insult with such a straight face- and with a fire in those vivid blue eyes of her's. Afterwards, she gave a polite curtsy and began her early walk home.
Not a word passed Zuko's lips. He simply turned and gave Jet a smirk that was the silent equivalent to "Man, she showed you!"
Jet simply glared and replied with a "Just shut up" before heading back for the crates they were moving earlier. Zuko just gave a laugh. He was just mad that a girl didn't fall for him this time.
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"Good! You're home! I just made a pot of tea and I didn't want it to get cold before you got home," The teen was greeting almost immediately after walking across the threshold into his apartment by his uncle.
He'd lived with Uncle Iroh ever since his father kicked him out several years ago. At first he'd resented living anywhere but home with his father and sister; he'd been a disgrace to the family, so his father said. It wasn't like there was much to disgrace; the family had only immigrated a couple of generations ago and really didn't have much here. All the same, it was a mentally scarring blow to be disowned by your father.
Over time, Iroh filled the position of father for him, which made the experience far more bearable- however eccentric the old man could be. And thinking back to all of the abuse his sister used to give him- she was very much her father's child- Zuko came to prefer living here more and more as the days went on.
"You know I get home at this time every day, Uncle," Zuko replied as he took off his shoes. This was followed by a removing of his wallet from his pocket before flopping down on the couch nearby.
"Ah, yes, but this is a new tea I bought today! One of those European teas the English are so fond of." Uncle had a fascination with teas, if you couldn't tell already. He wasn't a terribly exciting person; he liked pretty much everything an old immigrant from China should like: Tea, board games, and a good day's work. Iroh had a good sense of humor, though, and personality that grew on you. Zuko couldn't help but to smile and shake his head a bit at the elderly man's joy over a new tea.
"I sure hope it wasn't expensive." Was Zuko's only verbal reply.
"Oh, no, no, no! It was actually cheaper than the teas I usually buy. It would seem that it is quite a bit easier for most people to get one's hands on European teas than Asian- unless of course one knows where to look…" Zuko let his Uncle ramble on about his adventure today in finding said tea as he prepared to bring the tea into the apartment's small sitting room.
The teen couldn't help being reminded of the one significant event of his day as his enthused uncle told his story. Memories of the girl with the blue eyes and the loud voice returned to his mind, quickly followed by the memory of the sketch she'd begun to draw of him. Unbidden, he let out a sigh. This triggered an abrupt end to his uncle's story.
"Is something on your mind, Zuko?" Why did Uncle have to notice everything?
"It's nothing really,"
"Clearly it's not," Iroh prodded, a knowing smile on his face, "Simple weariness doesn't usually warrant such a sigh,"
"Just a little excitement on the docks today," Zuko sat up and gave a shrug, "Jet's wandering eyes just nearly got me killed, but whatever," Iroh shook his head a bit. He'd heard about Jet's girl-friendly ways before, and of his willingness to get rid of those between him and a prospective girlfriend. But then his eyebrows rose in realization.
"That means you and him had eyes on the same girl!" He faced his nephew with a grin on his face from ear to ear. "What was she like?"
"I wasn't even looking at her, Uncle. He wasn't paying attention while we were moving crates because his eyes were glued on her," He hated when his Uncle got like this. Boy, would he like it of Zuko finally got a girlfriend. His last one was just a year after being kicked out of house and home and it had ended badly due to the hours Zuko made himself work. The girl, Mai, simply wanted too much of his time.
"It wouldn't happen to be the wealthy girl who's been coming to the docks to draw, would it?" Iroh prodded again, grinning as wide as ever. Zuko's eyes widened with shock. How the heck did he know about her? "Oh! So it was!"
"So what if it was her? Jet was the one who was interested. How the heck did you find out about her, anyways?"
"Heard about her yesterday when I was talking with Zhao-"
"You were talking with him?! What the heck for?" Zhao hated him, and the only reason he still had that job was because he was willing to work more hours than some of the grown men and he did a better job than some of them, too.
"He wanted to have tea. Besides, he had some very good things to say about your work in resent weeks. He also plays a mean game of Mahjong!"
Zuko put a palm to his face and lay back down on the couch. "Yeah, and I'm as much a ladies man as Jet! Jhao hates me. It was a miracle I didn't get punished when he caught me yelling at Miss Priss today-"
"'Miss Priss'? The girl? You yelled at her?! Whatever for?" His uncle seemed very shocked and confused. Zuko gave a huff and relayed the story, omitting the part about how she'd been drawing him when he'd interrupted her. During the whole thing, his uncle sat and sipped his new tea, occasionally nodding in approval of its taste.
"Perhaps you should have apologized yourself instead of letting Jet apologize for you," Iroh commented after the story was over.
"I wasn't particularly sorry! She has no reason to be sitting at the docks drawing. She should go to some park where she won't stand out so much," This only yielded a smile and a slight chuckle from his elder. "What?"
Iroh simply sipped his tea and shrugged as if he wasn't thinking anything, but from the look in his eyes Zuko could tell what he was thinking. He thought Zuko was interested in that prissy know-it-all! He sighed and got up to go to his bedroom in an attempt to get some privacy. His uncle spoke up just before he left the room, though.
"Zhao says her name is Katara,"
"Zhao also tells me that when you yelled at her, she yelled right back at you...A lady doesn't raise her voice without reason", Iroh took another sip of his tea, looking down at it as though it might have held some life changing secrets within it's murky brown depths, but all that was really there was the bottom of the cup. "Zuko...", the older man smiled gently, "perhaps- instead of centering your attention on what tragedies this girl's presence is bequeathing upon you; you should ask yourself why a woman like her feels it is necessary to sit on the stairs of a dock house all day to draw. From what Zhao says, this girl wants for nothing, what is it that the docks give her that she can't get anywhere else?" And with that, the argument was done; Iroh returned to his tea and allowed his nephew to leave without any further badgering.
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Katara was brushing her hair, looking at her sketchbook which she'd laid open to the half done portrait of Zuko, when her mother came into her bedroom. It was late and she'd already gotten into her dressing gown as she sat at her vanity table; she'd had to bathe after practice in hopes of getting the smell of the docks from her before immediately sending her clothes down with a maid to be washed before her mother had a chance to find them. Being secretive had never really been something that she'd enjoyed but she knew that her mother would never understand; hell, no one in her family would understand, not even her brother Sokka.
"Katara...", the brunette looked at her mother in the mirror, watching as she paced up behind her, relieved her of the hairbrush she was holding and proceeded to gently brush the knots from her long brown hair. "What's this...?"
When her mother reached for her sketchbook, Katara quickly reached for it, picking it up and closing it before putting it in an open drawer that it had come from. She closed said drawer without a word, knowing that it's closure told her mother that it was not something to be asked about again; her mother had long since pressed the issue as to her daughter telling her everything, she'd left that up to a nanny since the girl was small. Not to say that the woman wasn't a loving mother but ever since this engagement had been pushed forward, there was a distance between them that would not be easily overcome.
As the girl put the sketchbook away, her mother sighed lightly and went back to brushing the teenager's hair, being careful not to pull too hard at the ends.
"You can't be cross with me forever about this Katara", she said simply; Katara's retort was a slight scoff.
"Oh you think so, do you?", the hairbrush was set down on the vanity table before the girl was grabbed by the shoulders and not roughly but not gently turned to look at her mother.
"Katara, I realize that this isn't what you wanted, it's not what you'd hoped for and it's certainly not what you think you need, but I can promise you..it is what's best for you." Getting up the girl glared.
"I suppose it's easy for you to say that, isn't it...", she said lowly before bending to get her sketchbook from the drawer, stepping around her mother and pacing into the small offshoot of the room that housed her bed and balcony. Closing the door behind her, she locked it, having no intention of leaving the room or letting anyone else in until morning. She didn't need to get yelled at by her mother for mouthing off, nor did she need to listen to her father trying to tell her to understand that her mother only wanted what was best for her or her older brother who wasn't being pushed into marrying anyone because he had a fiance that things weren't so bad.
What did Sokka know anyway? He was marrying for love; everyone in the family adored Suki, herself included; he wasn't being signed off to a rich little greenhorn who didn't know the first thing about girls and obviously had no mind of his own to go along with this. She stopped then, hugging her sketchbook tighter to her chest as she paced to the balcony and sat on the railing; in all truth she didn't know if the boy was going along with it because he wanted to or if he was like her and only putting on a polite face when the situation called for it. For all she knew he could be just as opposed to this as she was, though she doubted that because if he was it wasn't likely that this marriage would even have been proposed if that were the case.
"Why me?", she asked the night sky above her, "What did I do to deserve this?", hugging her sketchbook a little tighter she returned inside, closing the balcony doors behind her and skittering into bed, her sketchbook still hugged tight to her. It was just like that, that she fell asleep.
Zuko paused for a moment at the exit of the room. A slight smile lifted corner of his lips. Katara. It was fitting name.
"Zhao also tells me that when you yelled at her, she yelled right back at you...A lady doesn't raise her voice without reason", A hand on the wall, Zuko himself looked downward to think on this a bit. She had gotten really defensive…
"Zuko…" The boy looked back to his Uncle, who was now smiling at him. "perhaps- instead of centering your attention on what tragedies this girl's presence is bequeathing upon you; you should ask yourself why a woman like her feels it is necessary to sit on the stairs of a dock house all day to draw. From what Zhao says, this girl wants for nothing. What is it that the docks give her that she can't get anywhere else?"
After, Iroh made no move to continue, so Zuko walked the short distance down the hall to his bedroom. Shutting the door behind him, he flopped onto his bed and stared out the window just over his bed. He didn't have much of a view, but from the angle he caught from lying just under the window, he didn't have to look at much of the city. His eye line was fixed on the sky, now a midnight violet from the waning hues of sunset. All over the city, men were coming home from work- and some were going out for night shifts, as Zuko sometimes did.
Sometimes Zuko wished life didn't revolve so much around work. Without work, one didn't have money to eat. Without work, one couldn't pay the rent. And with Iroh unemployed, Zuko was very lucky not to be working night shift tonight to make ends meet (the old man had a stash of money saved up in case one of them got fired, as he did). It took so much to get anything he wanted.
The mood of his thoughts darkened as he remembered the reason for his situation. He remembered the face of his father, who appeared to have no love for him. He'd been obsessed with his work; only wanted to get higher in the corporate ladder. And when he got home every night, he only had eyes for Zuko's younger sister, Azula- who was somehow better than him in almost everything.
It didn't help that their mother had disappeared one day. Things were fine before that, because his mother acted like any respectable parent should. She loved both of her children, and while she spent time with Azula, she spent more time with Zuko to make up for the lack of time his father spent with him. Azula said it was because he was stupid and needed more help with his homework, but she was just jealous that mom loved him for not being perfect.
Then one night, while the children slept, she just up and vanished. Azula said she'd heard dad come home late, drunk and angry with Zuko's name on his lips. But instead of a trauma for Zuko, as there'd been a few times before, his mother was gone. And then life went downhill. From that point on, Zuko could do nothing right even though he'd honestly tried his best. His grades weren't good enough, he didn't do well enough in sports, and even his friends were dissatisfactory.
One night when his father got home late, Zuko had tried to cook but only succeeded in setting a small portion of the kitchen on fire. Unfortunately for him, his father was late because he'd been at the bar again. Azula simply went to hide just out of sight while Zuko's father brought down his anger. When Zuko tried to defend himself against the blows, it just made the whole thing worse. Eventually, Ozai took fire to his face, 'seeing as Zuko liked fire so much, he wouldn't mind a burned look to match'.
Zuko's eyes narrowed and he turned over to bury the burned half of his face in the sheets. Zuko wouldn't have gotten any help if it weren't for their neighbor's eldest daughter, and his future ex-girlfriend, Mai sneaking over to see what happened after everything had died down. He supposed that was why he'd gotten to know her at all; why he had any attachment to her.
The youth's thoughts suddenly took a weird turn, triggered by the entrance of the girl into his mental recount of this story. How different Katara's life must be. It was a strange thought, yes, but Zuko followed it. She lived in a nice family that had money. Her parents probably treated her well, and she'd been allowed to finish her education. Best of all, she probably did not have to work a single hour in the day. Zuko really envied her, living it up like that.
Iroh's suggestion came to mind. ' From what Zhao says, this girl wants for nothing. What is it that the docks give her that she can't get anywhere else?'. He mentally recounted how defensive she'd gotten over her little spot on the stoop. She could have simply found some place to draw, why did she make such a big deal out of it. Of course, Zuko hadn't helped with that, but that didn't stop the girl from fighting back. Most girls would have run in terror from Zuko's anger- a trait he was particularly proud of.
He then recalled Zhao's saying that her mother didn't like her down at the docks. That was expected. And boy, what would Miss Priss's mother do about that picture she'd drawn of him? Surely she'd flip her lid. Still, it didn't make sense why she'd get so defensive. Girls were so clingy, and it made no logical sense.
Zuko continued to lay there, his mind busy recounting the day's events, trying to figure out why she needed that spot so badly to draw. It definitely wasn't for him- Zuko refused to consider that far fetched possibility. He then simply recounted the event, having given up on the why for now. Katara had gone from defensive to kind in an instant. Then again, so had he. All it had taken was that stupid drawing.
Soon, the thoughts could no longer keep him awake. It made him feel silly, but as he drifted off, he hoped that Katara might have a chance to finish her drawing.