Neither do I own ATLA, NOR this story. The story is written by Zora, I'm only translating it.

Rated T because of scenes in future chapters!

Monsoon

Fanfiction by Zora

Chapter I: Fiery Evenings

It was late in the morning, when Katara eventually woke up in her temporary bed. She felt odd again, just like every day, how the color red predominated in her room. Not as if she wished to complain about that: the bedchamber was huge, and she didn't have to share it with anyone. This sensation solely made her forget about the balmy colored decor, it was so extraordinary and great.

It was quite a surprise her slumber lasted this long, since she was still pretty uncomfortable with the climate of this land.

Yet, it was not the ever increasing temperature which had woken her up, but the maid, entering the room, and putting something onto the not so surprisingly blood-red cushion.

Katara lifted her head up, blinking slowly in order to get rid of the last bits of sleepiness, and took a glance at the thing the palace employee brought. Then she blinked again, thinking her mind started to play tricks on her.

Some sort of cloth was lying on the crimson drapery of the sofa, a garment which was not red at all. The fabric looked pale azure instead, tied with longish, shiny golden tape. Just as if it was a present.

The maid nearly cried out, so upset she became discovering Katara was awake, and she informed the waterbender in an apologetic tone that she brought a gift from the Fire Lord. The palace worker also told her that the mentioned royalty and all the other guests felt having breakfast without Katara quite unpleasant.

The girl from the Southern Water Tribe became a bit startled, mainly because she never thought she'd missed breakfast, and also because she wasn't prepared for such a gesture from her friend.

Katara, lost in thought, sat up in her bed, and was blinded in the next second, because her involuntary movement has been considered by the maid as a serious attempt to get up. So the girl drew the curtain, and Katara was flooded with the warmness of sunlight overwhelming the kingdom outside.

It was not an easy job for Katara to convince the maid that she could handle bathing and dressing on her own. Finally, by pointing out the obvious, that she was a waterbender, thus she didn't even need a bathtub, not to mention help, Katara managed to drive the dedicated young woman away. The maid bowed so deep before leaving the room; Katara touched her own back unintentionally. The waterbender almost felt the pain the maid might experience performing the polite move.

The people at the royal court — maybe in the whole city — thought Katara was a princess of the Southern Tribe, with a gentle yet strong hand which healed the wounds of their Fire Lord, and also defeated the monarch's sibling, who usurped the throne. In fact, while she was indeed a representative of the Water Tribe, she was no princess.

And she was entirely unable to get used to all the fuss which came with the position of a mere ambassador.

Katara put on her dressing gown, and thought that the climate of the Fire Nation was a blessing, after all. It would be impossible to wear such comfortable and practical outfit at the South Pole. She approached the package which the maid had left for her, and reached out for it absentmindedly.

What a perfect fabric! she mused, stroking the material with her index finger, and then she held the cloth up high gripping the edge. Seeing the shape and size of the stunning dress, she only stared at it with sparkling eyes.

The waterbender sat onto the cushion and laid the dress in her lap, fondling it absently all over and over again, while her thoughts wandered away to the conversation she had with the Fire Lord the day before.

She remembered the sunset, one of the most colorful and magical sunsets she'd ever seen, a phenomenon only observable in this land of fire. It would've been impossibly dumb if they hadn't been outside watching it, and walking around in the palace grounds.

In fact, these evening walks had become quite a custom: Katara was usually accompanied by Sokka, Suki, Mai, Zuko and of course Momo.

The truth was, Sokka and his bride were not so much with the others, given they both were lost in their own little world instead, always pacing a few feet ahead. Not like Katara could blame them: there wasn't much time until their wedding, thus this trip to the Fire Nation Capital was like a teaser of their honeymoon. At least Sokka was not talking all along, like he did usually, and Katara could enjoy the uplifting scene of the fiery orb sinking beyond the horizon without being interrupted by the nonsense which her brother could offer.

There was one person though with whom Katara really wanted to share these moments: Aang. But the young Avatar was in Omashu, alongside with Toph. Though Aang had learnt the basics of bending each element, but since all the Avatars had practiced years to increase their skills, he had accepted King Bumi's invitation, and had gone to Omashu to learn from him. And Toph had gone with him, to see what Bumi could show, with full support from her parents this time.

She missed him so much! Aang was a perfect listener, and he always had something in mind to make her laugh. One thing only Iroh, Zuko's uncle was able to do, who has unfortunately hardly ever joined them for their walks. And Zuko… the young Fire Lord tried to be a good host, and he was willing to talk to Katara, but Mai was usually also there… And the pale noblewoman quite understandably expected that they would spend these moments in such an intimate manner with her lover as Sokka and Suki were doing it.

And even when Mai was in a talkative mood, the three of them couldn't find any common topic, of course.

Iroh seemed to be, however, cement to their small group. Whenever he was present, he chatted so nonchalantly with both Zuko and Katara that even Mai felt the urge to take part in the conversation.

"Do you have any information about the development of the Avatar's earthbending abilities, dear heart?" the old soldier had inquired during one of their walks.

"Yes, he sent me a letter recently. Well, Toph already refers to King Bumi as a 'menace'" Katara had said with a smirk. "I'm not so worried about Toph, though. Sooner or later old Bumi would regret letting her into his city in the first place. Aang, however… Earthbending was never one of his strengths. I presume it has to do something with him being an airbender. Earth and air are quite the opposite."

Iroh had looked serious as he had nodded positively, and he had opened his mouth perhaps to say some mannered words of wisdom about 'the four elements are only parts of the whole', but Zuko had interrupted his thoughts:

"If earth and air are the opposite" Zuko had told, looking back above his shoulder ", then maybe water and fire are opposite as well. Perhaps that's why you find it hard to get accustomed to our country!"

Katara had noticed the mischievous flicker in his friend's orbs, thus she had rolled her eyes, and answered with fake shyness:

"It's not hard at all; I'm surrounded by so many hard-working servants and not to mention a wholehearted host! Before coming here I had only Sokka to look after me, but soon only Suki will benefit from his efforts" she had stated, and acknowledged his brother's complaints with pleasure. All the others had laughed at her sarcasm, save Iroh, who had been fiddling with his grey beard with a scatty expression on his face.

"You may inform Aang in your reply that we look forward to see him as our guest here, Lady Katara, of course unless he's afraid of some firebending practice! I'm quite sure Zuko still has some things to teach him" the old man had said finally.

"Don't be ridiculous, uncle Iroh! If there's someone the Avatar should learn from, it is definitely you!" the young man walking beside the silent Mai had said. "Speaking of it, I think I could use a lesson or two as well! I might have forgotten some moves myself, since I'm not training regularly."

"If you have problems with your memory, I recommend having a nice cup of ginseng tea!"

"I know Aang would be thrilled if he'd have a chance to learn from the Dragon of the West" Katara had assured the old general.

"I bet Jeong-Jeong would be relieved, if he could skip Aang's training" Sokka had said, earning some glares with his remark. "What? You all think that either!"

All the evenings were like that one, except the previous. On that evening, Mai had stormed out of the dining room in the middle of the supper, given the letter she had received. Though she had seemed to be as indifferent as always, Katara couldn't help but deduced it must had been important, and she thought Zuko only had remained because of his respect for his guests.

After the dessert, they had gone to the lounge, where Sokka had dropped himself onto some pillows piled up on a couch and worded his determination to call it a day, because of his full stomach.

"So, we postpone our little walk this evening?" Katara had said, keeping her fingers crossed, because she really hadn't wished to share a walk with merely the two lovebirds and Momo. She, however, had stroked the long, furry ears of the lemur, in order to show the problem hadn't been him.

"Oh, no, go ahead! But I think I shall stay here and rest" Sokka had said in an irritatingly painful tone, and Suki had assured him she won't let him alone in this condition. Katara had shrugged, and left the couple alone, with Momo sitting on her collarbone. She had drawn the curtain, functioning as the exit to the inner garden, and had stepped outside on the terrace.

Yet another Fire-Nation-sunset, though it had been special. It had been one of the last ones for Katara... for the time being. They would have travelled home the day after tomorrow. And it had been fine to do so, because she had felt quite bored. No, bored was inappropriate… she had been lonely. She couldn't even figure why she had accepted the invitation in the first place.

Maybe she hadn't wanted to be all alone, and she really had longed for meeting some old friends. But now she had known it was time to go. She had hoped they would stop by in the Earth Kingdom, and maybe meet up with Aang.

It had started off quite interestingly, though. The formal, diplomatic obligations, such as exchanging gifts had taken the whole first day, but by the end of the second one, they'd been finished with all necessary political issues. There had been peace, after all, and no one cared about politics in times of peace. Zuko's schedule, however, had turned out to be surprisingly busy; nevertheless he had tried to do his best looking after his guests.

Not as if Katara had needed a babysitter. The confident girl she was, she had explored the palace on her own, spent a significant amount of time in the library and with bending practice. She even had demonstrated her skills to some astounded pedestrians in town and to some wealthy and influential people at the royal court after a ceremonial feast. It had been only her loneliness which she couldn't get rid of on her own.

Her thoughts had been interrupted by Momo, who had taken off from her shoulder, stubborn to catch a large insect flying above their heads with a buzzing sound. Katara had chuckled at this, and she had tried to keep up with the lemur. She had crossed a tiny lawn, and arrived to a narrow stream of water, divided to pieces by petite waterfalls.

Momo had landed on a bonsai in the meantime, where he had found a new source of entertainment, jumping up and down on its weak but whippy branches. Sometimes the lemur was suspiciously similar to Aang — or vice versa —, and had made Katara burst out laughing.

And she had been obviously not the only one, given the soft laughter coming from behind her back. It had been strangely familiar, yet unfamiliar. She had known the voice pretty well, but she had heard Zuko laughing very rarely.

"It always seemed like a miracle, that this little fellow could survive all alone in that deserted Air Temple" Zuko had told, unintentionally following the same path leading to the water stream as Katara. "And, not to mention, it's also quite suspicious how similar he is to Aang!"

The waterbender had failed to reply, so startled she had been because Zuko had told the same thing she was thinking about. She had bowed her head instead, and took note of how elegant the young Fire Lord had been. It had been, however, only the neatly tailored, long robe's doing, and of course the small, golden crown's, which had been the heritage of Avatar Roku. Zuko's disheveled hair and little goatee had made the exact opposite impression.

Hearing the words of Zuko, an odd thought had come to life in Katara's mind. What if Zuko knew how much she missed Aang as well? That would have meant someone saw her sorrow, understood her solitude…

"I mean" Zuko had continued, noticing that he caught Katara's attention. ", they share the same fate! They are both the last members of their kind: the Air Nomads and the lemurs. Survival is the bond which brings them so close to one another".

Katara's face had frozen. She had expected anything but this explanation, and it had upset her greatly. The next moment, however, she had understood how pathetic she was. Why couldn't she just speak her mind, instead of waiting for her friend to figure out what her problem had been?

She had shaken her head violently. No, this also had been stupid. She couldn't just tell this friend of hers that she had looked forward to leave as soon as possible.

"You've forgotten Appa! He's also the last one of his kind" she had spat out, just to say something, and headed for the small bench surrounded by some flowerbeds, right under the balcony of her room, to sit down for a bit.

"I didn't mention him because he wasn't the one who you'd found in the Air Temple" Zuko had said, totally confused. Katara had felt guilty, seeing his warm, apologetic smile. After all, it had been really not fair to show Zuko her nastier side, since he had tried to make her staying in the Fire Nation Capital at least tolerable. Even now, when he was supposed to be…

"Hey, why aren't you with Mai? I hope she didn't receive bad news…"

"Oh, don't worry! The letter came from Ty Lee. I didn't have a chance to learn what's in it, but I'm quite sure it's the usual rambling about fashion and beauty know-how" Zuko had said, waving off Katara's worries.

The young woman had raised an eyebrow at this.

"Yes, probably… But the baby is about to born, you know. I bet that's in the letter!" she had stated excitedly. "Mai's just not the kind of girl who leaves a more or less compulsory dinner just to read about beauty tips!"

"Oh, the child, I forgot! You're… you're right, of course" Zuko had told, and the embarrassment had silenced him.

Katara had thought this was the perfect opportunity to say 'good night' to the Fire Lord. She had needed some rest, and hoped with sleep the moment of departure would come more rapidly. Thus she had assured her friend, that she'd completely understand if he wished to go back to his partner and ask her about Ty Lee's baby.

Zuko, however, had not been willing to go at all. He had carried on trying to cheer up Katara instead:

"Oh, so you want to get rid of me? And what about the evening walk? As it seems, we are not like Sokka, we don't get knocked out by a steak rarer than optimal!" He had extended his palm, in order to help Katara emerge from the bench. A flash of a memory had come to Katara's mind: the scene of Zuko falling. Trapped by gravity, lured by the siren songs and welcoming arms of the rocky surface below, his hand held out desperately in the air… and herself, clutching at it tightly.

"Besides" he had added in a less joyful tone, and Katara had seen honest hurt as they locked eyes. "I feel more like being with an old friend right now. Because that's what we are, right? Friends… so, by the way, please, don't act like I was a Fire Lord!"

"You are a Fire Lord" the girl had protested.

"Yes. But I'm also Zuko! And for you… all of you, I'm Zuko in the first place. So?" he had looked at Katara a bit impatiently.

Finally, a smirk had appeared on Katara's lips, and she had seized on Zuko's hand. Zuko had seemed to be pleased, as he had led the girl back to the pathway. While they had continued with their pacing, Momo had landed silently on Katara's shoulder again. The waterbender had known Zuko was also smiling, without even looking at him.

"Do you remember how we concluded the other day that fire and water are the complete opposite?" Zuko had asked.

"I did not say I agree with you on that!" Katara had said, while passing by a huge, ivy-covered piece of stone.

"Right…" Zuko had inclined his head, a bit embarrassed given his tendency to make mistakes this evening. "Tell me: are you unhappy here?"

Katara, startled, had stopped dead in her tracks, and stared at her friend.

So he did figure! How did he know? she had thought, though she had known it didn't require a genius to find it out. Oh, dear Spirits, why am I unable to conceal any emotions?

Because of the lack of reply, Zuko had carried on:

"I did try to make you feel as good as possible… your room is the darkest one in the whole palace, and it also has a window which opens at a lake… Yes, I know that it doesn't feel like home, but still…"

Katara had started to feel awkward, thanks to all the care her friend had shown to her.

"Maybe you're unfamiliar with the food… or the people? Well, I don't think I can fix that. I'm really sorry, but the royal court is crowded with all kinds of annoying persons… trust me, I know!"

"Zuko!" Katara had had no other choice but to interrupt the Fire Lord's babbling. What he had been saying was nowhere near the truth. Even the Fire Nation nobles had provided better company for the time being, even with all their snobbish talking and ridiculous customs, than her brother and his bride… "You couldn't be more wrong! This place is wonderful! It's even… too much, since I'm just a… regular girl from a fishermen's tribe. I don't even deserve this much attention from a Fire Lord!"

A hint of surprise had appeared on Zuko's scarred face.

"Katara, how can you say such thing? You saved my life! You saved all of us!" Zuko had told, gesturing around. "I will never forget that, and if I have the slightest chance to repay you, I will! But you see, I cannot do anything relevant, unless you tell me what's wrong! When you arrived, I saw true joy in your eyes, but that happiness disappeared… The only thing which remained is unnerving politeness. I want you here as a friend, not as an ambassador of another nation! Please; would you tell me what the problem is?"

Katara had felt uncomfortable again, as she realized how much of an open book she had been for her friend since day one. But at the same time, she had felt betrayed. She had not been feeling like an important guest to the Fire Lord. Now that she had thought about it, these efforts of his seemed to be impersonal, and she had had the impression that she had been an unwanted person here, in the Fire Nation Capital. Thus her eyes had been ice cold, as she had looked at Zuko again, and finally, words of pure honesty had left her mouth:

"I'm sorry, but I truly thought… I truly think things had changed! I had thought that this trip is only a formal visit, so I might have been acting as a mere delegate of my people. Because… you were so busy, Zuko! You barely had time to see us, and if you did have, we couldn't exchange more than a few words…" Katara had pointed out.

She only had understood after finishing the sentence that all of this was a terrible misunderstanding. She had thought the young Fire Lord ignored her because of… well, herself. Thus she had never worded her problems.

And on the other hand, Zuko had never asked her, how she had been… right until this moment. But now, his curious concern had shown that the firebender must've been also grateful and happy to enjoy his friend's company.

Maybe I… scared him away with the coldness I radiated, according to his words, she had wondered, and watched Zuko, who had taken a deep breath, and continued walking. Yes, this is a horrible mistake!

She had followed the Fire Lord. They'd left the terrace and the inner gardens, and ended up under some tallish trees, branches suffering under the weight of loads of heavy fruit.

"I'm so sorry I had to disappoint you, Katara!" Zuko had started. "There's a drought in the Southern Territories. A real catastrophe… and to make it worse, the peasants are revolting! We — the government, I mean — had sent as much supply to the people as we could, but some of it disappeared on the way there. It's a really disturbing case, as you can imagine. This is the reason why there are so many general staff meetings recently. My best men are investigating the situation, including uncle Iroh… and in the meanwhile, we, here in the Capital, are trying to figure out, how to restore public order out there… Poor uncle, he must be going through hell, being far from his beloved tea shop in Ba Sing Se for this long!"

Katara had wanted to say something, but she couldn't think of anything appropriate. Zuko had been so upset about the topic; his vocal cords had been droning nervously, as he had continued with his explanation:

"This was the reason why I've been so preoccupied. I was thinking about a decent solution, even when I should've had focused on my guests' wellbeing. And not only you've fallen victim to my distraction" the man had confessed, looking away. "I managed to hurt Mai as well a few times. You know… her signature coldness had only made my mood even worse."

Katara had shared Zuko's aggravation. She couldn't imagine anything more evil than stealing food from the starving.

Actually… she could imagine more vile things. But she had refused to think about them.

She had looked at Zuko instead, showing a worried expression, and put a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder, though suddenly she had become worried about the relationship between Zuko and Mai as well. But Zuko had changed the topic of the conversation, assuring Katara, that from now on, he would be a better host.

"I missed talking to you. So, when the others refused to go on a walk, I followed you."

Because you're important to me, the glowing eyes of the man had told, and Katara had blushed. It had remained, however, unseen in the semidarkness of the garden. She had been sure her embarrassment was caused by the silly misunderstanding. It had been so simple after all: both of them had longed for each other's company, but they couldn't manage to enjoy it properly, until now.

"I'm happy that you are here, and told me that" Katara had bowed her head, and held her hands according to the Fire Nation customs.

Zuko had rolled his eyes at this.

"Oh, come on, Katara!" an annoyed Zuko had said, and he had opened his arms, thus the sleeves of his robe had slipped from his forearm. Katara had been utterly joyful, when she finally had taken that final step towards the Fire Lord, and Zuko had gathered her into a warm hug. Finally, they had been as close to each other as they used to be, both literally and emotionally.

Katara had thought it couldn't have been more pleasant. The air had been filled with the bewildering, sweet odor of blossoming flowers, and with the crippling of lovestruck crickets calling for one another.

The girl from the Water Tribe had felt ashamed, having doubts in connection with Zuko again. He had proved to be a loyal friend… She had known he was worthy of her trust since their imprisonment in the Crystal Catacombs, deep beneath Ba Sing Se. It had been actually her mistake that the confused teenager turned against them: his whole morality had turned upside down, thanks to different expectations from various members of his horrible family… She should've seen that! She should've convinced him, should've made the difference between wrong and right clear for him…

But all's well that ends well, as the saying goes. Zuko had managed to grow up and become a better person, even without her aid. He had learnt to smile: if this hadn't been a positive metamorphosis, then Katara didn't know, what could be.

They had become more and more relieved with every passing second, walking side by side, maybe a bit too close to each other. Not as if they had had much choice, because the road had been narrow, and there hadn't been any light around, save the Evening Star and the rising Moon above and a bunch of fireflies. They had had to follow the path, and stick close, if they hadn't wanted to crash into a tree accidentally.

"I couldn't help noticing, my dear friend, Fire Lord Zuko" Katara had said, placing extra emphasis on the royal title, in order to underline she had only been joking ", your sense of fashion is improving spectacularly! I still remember you wearing those terrifying body armors with all the spikes on it… brr, they must be very uncomfortable!"

"You'd be much surprised how comfortable they are" Zuko had said, letting out a small laugh, and he had started to explain why these outfits are so common among the Fire Nation officers. He also had told her about the symbolic meanings of some clothes and accessories, and then he had assured Katara that there had been more humble garments in the wardrobe of a wealthy citizen of the Fire Nation as well.

"What a pity… It seems you dislike even the fashion of my people!"

"Oh, no, no! I never told that!" Katara had protested, playing with her hair awkwardly. "I saw, in fact, plenty of women wearing beautiful dresses at the banquettes. Also, your weavers can produce really fine and strong fabric, and your tailors… well, all I can say is they seem to be the best clothbenders in the world! There are some things I'd do differently, though. I, myself, like looser clothing better… waterbending requires rather wide, sweeping movements, you know…"

"Yes, and firebending requires security!" the young man had interrupted, smirking at Katara's logic, which had been so unlike the thinking of any member of the Fire Nation. "If we'd try to firebend wearing loose clothes, we'd possibly set ourselves on fire, don't you think?"

"That would call for a really clumsy firebender, don't you think? Wait… it happened to you right?" she had told, chuckling. "Admit it!"

Zuko had groaned in annoyance, and he had picked some fruit off the lower branch of a tree for both of them instead of answering.

"How else would you like to change our taste?"

The man had ripped a piece of fruit in two, and he had handed one of the two halves of it to his friend. The fruit had looked delicious and it had had a real sweet odor. Though Katara couldn't wait to get a taste of it, nevertheless she had answered the question, in a joking manner, of course:

"Tell me something: what is the use of all the red? I mean yes, there's some black and gold and even purple here and there, but they're almost unnoticeable amongst all this red! Don't tell me it's because you people are so narrow-minded…"

"Well, there are kani trees all around… You can see them everywhere in the Fire Nation. The leaves of them are used to manufacture red paint, you know. Thus that paint has the most decent price, given the great volume of it."

"Oh" Katara had said, and she had felt stupid. "I though it was also symbolic… You know, the national color, and things like that."

"Yes, that's a reasonable thought, but it happened in fact contrariwise" Zuko had said, but Katara hadn't cared about what he had to say anymore, because she hadn't even been there with him. Taking a bite of the furlo fruit could really overwhelm anyone. It made one feel him- or herself in heaven, that's how incredibly delicious it was...

As the memory of the fruit's sweet taste blurred, Katara took yet another look at the beautiful piece of clothing on the cushion. It seemed like she had no idea how dedicated Zuko could really be. Yes, she did know that side of Zuko very well… But planning this out, to give such a beautiful cloth to her, just because of her rather infantile words, which completely lacked seriousness, and having it done during one night…

Well, that was a really, really crazy thing to do, even if someone was a Fire Lord. Not to mention in this case a very busy Fire Lord.

Translator's note: Oookay, so you may speculate what is this all about. Well, this is a Zutara story, written by Hungarian author Zora, and I decided to translate it in English, because I've found it suitable to do so! It also turned out to be a Christmas present to her, so yeah... Merry Christmas :)

So, basically, if you detest it, then blame me for the crappy translation, but on the other hand, if you enjoyed it, well, it's completely Zora's achievement^^

Please, leave a review, if you liked it (perhaps I can persuade the author to respond to them herself). Merry Christmas to ya'll!