Zuko could not believe his luck.
For that was what it must have been. To have been able to defeat Azula. To have survived that lightning strike. It was luck.
Or maybe it was just Katara.
He looked at her now, his chest still aching something terrible. But he was full of adrenaline, full of hope that perhaps they could come through this. Hope that Aang would be okay, that he would do what he had to do. That Sokka, and Toph, and Suki, and all of his new friends were going to be alright.
Katara looked to him, and the blue of her eyes seemed darker in the dim light of the day. "Are you okay?" She asked.
Zuko knew that she didn't have to voice the words. He could read them in her eyes. But he was grateful for the distraction that conversation would bring.
With a nod, he looked out over the ruined courtyard of the palace. Azula had been taken away, immobilised and subdued by her defeat and subsequent breakdown. Zuko was glad that she was out of sight.
He distracted himself with Katara again. "Are you okay?" He asked. Even now, as he took in her face, he could only think back on the fight that had just occurred. He had saved Katara's life, had jumped in front of Azula's lightning without a second thought. And she had healed him. She had saved him, too.
"I'm fine, Zuko." Katara offered him a tight smile.
He knew why she was so worried, for the fate of their friends worried him as well. He turned to the palace, "We've done our part, Katara."
He was grateful when she turned to join him. He didn't think he could enter this palace on his own.
They wandered through the empty hallways, darkened by the lack of natural light and the absence of the servants that usually frequented the halls and lit the sconces.
Katara walked a little closer to him and Zuko felt her arm brush his. He remembered the weight of her hand on his chest, healing him. Somehow he could not shake this strange feeling he had. Like he owed her something.
He didn't though, and he knew that. He had saved her life and she had saved his.
"It's so gloomy." She whispered, her voice echoed down the high-ceilinged corridor they were currently walking down.
"Outside." He murmured, more to himself than to her.
Zuko led her through his childhood home until they reached the covered walkways that ringed the garden where his mother had so often brought him.
Of course he would come back here. He almost laughed at his own predictability.
"The gardens?" Katara asked.
He nodded and stepped down into the grass. Instantly, his feet began the journey across the lawn towards the pond. He sat down, cross legged on the stone rim around the water. The turtle ducks were still swimming in circles, dipping below the water and then rising again.
Katara hesitated, as though she didn't want to disturb him, but Zuko raised a hand to beckon her over.
She sat beside him, their knees touching. Zuko didn't mind. He was still grateful for her company.
The silence was too much for him though, and soon he found himself filling it.
"My mother used to bring me here to feed the turtle ducks." He said.
A breeze swept the hair back from his forehead, and Zuko raised his eyes to the red and purple sky. The comet had transformed the landscape into some twisted, apocalyptic sight. Once again, Zuko hoped his friends would be alright.
"What happened to her? Your mother?" Katara asked quietly.
He didn't look at her when he replied. Somehow he had not yet found the comfort he needed to look his friends in the eye when he revealed such personal things to them.
He began the story his father had told him all that time ago. Before he had found Aang and begun to train him.
Katara listened attentively and when he was done, she placed a hand on his knee in sympathy.
Once again, Zuko was reminded of what that hand had done for him today. Saved his life. He met Katara's eyes. "Thank you for healing me." He said.
She smiled, "I should be thanking you."
"What will happen now?" He wondered aloud.
"If all goes well," Katara swallowed, her eyes on the pond in front of them. "Then you'll become Fire Lord and we'll all be safe."
"Fire Lord." He whispered.
Katara patted his knee, "Don't worry about that now."
How she knew that he was worried, he wasn't sure. But Zuko was thankful that he never really needed to tell Katara how he felt. She always seemed to know him.
They sat in silence by the turtle duck pond until their time together ran out.
The roar of the crowd was almost deafening.
Zuko wished someone else was up here with him, on the dais before the crowd. His eyes found his friends, Aang, Sokka, Toph, Suki. Katara. He caught her eyes from where they stood among the throng of people, all of them lit up with bright smiles.
They had all returned safely, to Zuko's utter relief.
He had thought about what it would be like if one of them had not come back. How much guilt would plague him, knowing that his family were the reason they had been in danger in the first place.
He shook himself from his thoughts and managed a wave to the crowd. His friends had done their part. Now it was his turn.
He had the weight of all these eyes upon him. He had the trust of his people, of the people across the seas that now looked to him to change the way things had been, and it settled into a heaviness on his shoulders even as he stood tall to face the crowd.
"Tea?" Zuko offered the tray of steaming cups to his uncle. The old man smiled and accepted a cup, taking a sip. It brought Zuko such happiness to see his uncle alive and well. And for once, Zuko would not let him down.
He smiled and walked over to join his friends, offering tea to Aang and Toph on his way.
Friends.
It was still such a strange feeling to him. He had never really had friends. Still, as his eyes roamed the crowd of them in the small room they lounged in - everybody dressed in Earth Kingdom green, - he couldn't help but feel at home.
This was right.
His eyes paused on an empty space in the room. Then another.
Zuko turned to look for Aang and Katara and found the two of them on the balcony together. With a start, Zuko realised what must be happening.
A flush started at his neck and began to rise.
Zuko wasn't… good with romance.
It made him awkward and shifty, even when he was simply observing it occur between two other individuals. That was the extent of his discomfort with that particular topic.
He turned from the sight of the two on the balcony, and yet, he felt compelled to watch. Would she accept Aang's advances?
He had been blind to the feelings Aang held for Katara, until a conversation by the campfire with Sokka had revealed all, and Zuko had stored the information away. It was unimportant. The war was his first priority. His father and Azula were his first priority.
But now?
Zuko glanced at Aang and Katara. He watched as they embraced. Watched as their lips met.
Only then did he look away.
Now was no different.
His first priority was his people. He had to deal with his father and Azula still. He had a duty now he could not set aside.
Zuko did not look at Aang and Katara as they entered the room again, hand in hand. He did not pay them any extra attention, and yet the image of them together still swirled about his mind no matter how hard he tried to banish it.
Katara came to him afterwards. She came to him alone.
Zuko was removing the pin from his hair, standing in the cavernous room he had been given.
Not his father's room. But a new one, his own one. He couldn't bring himself to return to his old chambers either.
The knock sounded on the door, soft and timid. "Come in." He called, setting the golden flame pin down on the dresser.
A swish of fabric sounded from the door, and then a heavy thud signalled it's closing. He looked up at the mirror in front of him to find Katara in the reflection. Her green skirts brushed the floor as she walked towards him.
She looked uncomfortable, and Zuko could read that discomfort on her face and in her body.
"What is it?" He asked and turned to her.
She smiled softly, a sad smile that made his chest tighten. "We're leaving soon. I just wanted to come say goodbye."
Zuko blinked. How could he have forgotten? Of course they would return home. They wouldn't stay here with him.
"You came alone?" He asked, but it was more of a statement.
Katara nodded, "I wanted to say goodbye on my own first. Properly." She was flushed, embarrassed by her own desire to give him a goodbye that would only be between the two of them.
"You're going back home?" He asked, his eyes roaming her face. He couldn't seem to stop looking over her. Like he was taking in the memory of her before she left.
"I am." Katara smiled, they stepped up to one another, meeting in the middle of the room.
Suddenly, the image of her and Aang flooded his mind and Zuko opened his mouth before he could stop himself. "Will Aang go with you?"
At her puzzled expression, he explained awkwardly. "I mean… I saw you both today…" He trailed off.
Katara blushed, her hands clasped behind her back. "Yeah… I guess he will come with me. I don't know." She shrugged. "It happened so fast."
Something in her expression made him frown. "You don't seem happy."
Instantly, she straightened up, as though that could stop him from reading her so well and seeing that lingering unease in her expression.
"I'm fine. And you will be, too. I'll write to you." She smiled.
"Will you really?" He asked, an attempt at teasing to hopefully lighten this weight that settled in his stomach at the thought of never seeing his friends again.
He was being dramatic. As usual.
"I will try." Katara laughed, "And you'd better reply. I know you'll be the Fire Lord and you'll have lots of work to do, but you need to make time for your friends. And for me particularly." She grinned.
Zuko couldn't help it. "Why you in particular?"
Her grin faded and Zuko watched her expression flicker for a moment before she shrugged, "Because we saved each other's lives and that means something."
He couldn't help it when he reached out to her, stepping into her embrace. Her body was warm against his and when he closed his eyes, he could remember all the times he had noticed her scent. Salt, and clean cotton, and something floral.
Her hair brushed his nose and the sensation brought him back to the present. Katara was pulling away. Zuko watched as the red and green of their sleeves brushed against the other as their arms fell back to their sides.
Katara turned to go and Zuko almost thought she would go without a final look back at him, but she turned when she was at the door and waved.
Zuko stored away the memory of that smile for the times when he would feel most lonely.