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"I don't think this is a very good idea Katara," Zuko said watching the walls of the Southern Water Tribe grow closer as they made off of the small boat that had carried them down into the frozen waters. The couple had been together for almost a year and she'd never brought him to meet the family. Sure he'd met Hakoda... Oh he met Hakoda, but he'd never met the rest of the family. And seeing as how the two were getting very serious about being together it was time he'd met the others.
"Why not," the water bender rolled her eyes before grinning at him.
"Because they probably hate me. The last time I was here I kind of drove my boat through your wall, pushed your brother into a pile of snow and kicked him in the face, and assaulted the lady that wound up being your grandma. I don't think they really want to see me."
"You're just worried. I'm sure they'll love you," Katara assured him slightly worried herself. She knew her dad liked Zuko, those two had seemed to have hit it of pretty quickly, and she knew Sokka would help back him up if things got bad (but unfortunately her brother was supposed to be in Kyoshi with Suki), and Iroh was supposed to have talked to Pakku and the man seemed to have taken a liking to the boy from what she'd heard. But what scared her was her grandma's opinion. Gran Gran might not be too pleased about her choice in men.
Stepping through the opening in the protecting wall the young couple stood in awe of the small tribe, or what was once a small tribe. The small snow buildings now stood tall and strong, the tents replaced with sturdy ice homes, all thanks to the water benders from the north who had moved down with Pakku. A feeling of quilt built inside of her as she looked around at the now bustling town. Growing up the home had always been small and bare, but now it was alive and reborn. It had been brought out of its once sorry and run down state and entered a new time of care, something she had taken no part in.
She'd spent almost a year with Aang the two of them helping in the rebuilding of the Earth Kingdom before the two had split and she'd found her way to Zuko where she stayed. Without Mai and Ty Lee the young Fire Lord was alone and in need of company, but the two never would have thought their time together would end with their fingers tightly woven the two of them now looking at the new and improved Southern Water Tribe, their lives about to change just as the village had.
"ZUKO!" the voice screamed as a well-built warrior came rushing at the two and colliding with his friend sending them to the ground. Katara couldn't help but laugh as she watched her brother and boyfriend trying to untangle each other on the slippery ground. Beside her, and also holding her gut with laughter, was Suki. Looking over Katara realized that the Kyoshi Warrior was clothed in the dull blues of the Water Tribe, a large coat covering her upper body, one that matched the ones she used to wear when she lived here.
"What are you two doing here?" Katara asked looking at her friend. "I thought you and Sokka were on Kyoshi teaching the new warriors and all that."
"We were," Suki replied pulling Sokka to his feet before giving Zuko a hand to help him up as well, "but we heard you were taking Zuko to meet your family and Sokka thought you could use some help."
"I need a miracle," Zuko muttered slipping and falling back onto the ground with a bang. Looking around he noticed that quite a lot of people were staring at the little group… this was not how he wanted to meet Katara's family. "You think I can just scoot a crossed the ice. Standing is dangerous."
Holding her hand down Katara pulled him to his feet and kissed his check slightly feeling the heat from his body rush against her lips. "Time to meet the family."
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Katara could feel the awkwardness as she followed her grandmother into her home Zuko outside with a bunch of kids. She knew her grandmother wouldn't be very happy with the idea but she never thought she would be this mad.
"Are you crazy," the old woman said turning to look at her, "what about Aang?"
"Aang's with Toph, apparently those two have been liking each other for some time now… and we wouldn't have worked out very much anyway, we're too different."
"But why him? Why this… fire bender? Don't you remember what they did to our people? To our family?"
"He has a name, and it's Zuko." Katara replied trying not to blow up at the woman who had raised her most of her life, "and yes I know what happened, but Zuko wouldn't do that. He's different than them, he's…."
"How do you know that?" her grandmother asked concerned, "how do you know he's not like the others?"
"Because he's not," Katara yelled back getting angry, "he's not like the others."
"And how do you know this? What has he done for you? He was the one who attacked our tribe; he was the one who tracked you, your brother and Aang all over the world. All he's ever done is stir up trouble. He's just like the rest of the Fire Nation. They are all evil. He's probably just like his father."
"Zuko's done everything he could for us. He taught Aang fire bending, took me to face the man who murdered my mother, helped Sokka rescue dad, rescued Suki as well. If it wasn't for him I'd be dead!"
Kanna froze for a moment taking in her granddaughter's last words, "aren't you taking that last one out of proportions?"
"No I'm not," Katara spat back clinching her fists, "Zuko saved my life. He risked his own life to save me, if it wasn't for him I would never have made it out of the comet alive. His sister would have killed me but he jumped in front of the lightning, nearly got himself killed for it! I don't care what you think of the Fire Nation, or the people in it, but you don't talk about Zuko like that. He's nothing like Ozai! How can you even compare them? If you don't trust Zuko that's fine… but I do and whether you like him or not it isn't going to change anything about the way I feel! I love him and he loves me and that's just the way it is."
Katara spun on her heels and left the house slamming the door behind her. She didn't like yelling at her grandmother but she was being so unfair. How could she be so cruel and judgmental of Zuko? She'd never even met him! If she'd open her eyes she'd see that he was nothing like those before him. He was nothing like his father, or grandfathers… and he was nothing like the man who killed her mother.
Looking around she searched for the fire bender but couldn't see him anywhere in the groups of people walking around the village, many smiling and nodding at her. Hearing a familiar cry Katara spun on her heels and raced to the yell hoping she wouldn't be too late.
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"I like the boy Kanna," Pakku said looking at his wife. "He's actually very nice and cares for Katara greatly. I've seen the way they move around each other, almost as if they as perfectly fitting puzzle pieces. And he's trying his best, you have to remember he's got one hundred years of fighting and hate on his hands to deal with. That's a lot of pressure for one boy; I think Katara is what he needs. She needs him as well. The two have a lot to go through and they'll need each other's help doing it. Can't you give him a chance?"
"What if he turns out like the others?" Kanna whispered, "what if he hurts my baby. I don't know what I'd do if something was to happen to her. The Fire Nations a dangerous place dear, with the war over there's still a lot of unrest. What if she gets caught in the middle and he can't protect her? I know that he cares for her, and she him, but I'm afraid that there will come a time when she will be in danger and caring and love won't be enough."
"Was she not in danger when they left to help the Avatar?" Pakku asked holding her close. "What makes this any different?"
"Aang could have protected them, and even if I said no they would have gone anyway… I didn't want them to leave but they would have left anyway. I don't want to lose them… Sokka's gone off to Kyoshi if Katara moves to the Fire Nation when will I ever see her again?"
"You don't have to worry," Pakku spoke softly into her ear realizing just why Kana was so worried. It wasn't that she didn't like Zuko; it was that she was afraid Zuko would take her granddaughter away from her. She was afraid of losing her family. "Katara is strong, she can handle herself, and when she can't she'll have Zuko by her side, she'll be safe. I trust the boy, he's uncle has spoken highly of him and from what I've seen he is an outstanding young man who loves your granddaughter more than anything. He'd never let anything happen and he'd never force her to do anything she didn't want. As much as he'd hate to emit it Katara can kick his butt and she's done it plenty of times before," Kanna laughed slightly causing Pakku to stop for a moment. "And she will come back. There comes a time in our life where we have to let our little birds fly away… and you've come to that point. But you must let them fly."
Kanna turned to look at him and opened her mouth to respond before two distinct screams filled her ears. Recognizing one as Sokka's she let go of her husband and the two of them raced off to the sound, Katara right ahead of them.
W++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++W
"Why do I have the feeling that we're going to die?" Zuko asked as he looked down at the large hill his friend wanted to slide down. Turning back he looked at the Water Tribe warrior but his eyes caught the group of kids who had followed them up to the hill top. Sokka's "Little Warriors" as he called them were evil, just plain evil. Right after Katara had went into the house to talk with her grandmother the group of boys had attacked. Pounding him with frozen snowballs and snow down his pants had been the first attack. Now they came to watch him kill himself trying to go down a very steep and very frozen hill.
"You'll be fine I used to do this all the time," Sokka told him breaking a large chunk of ice away, big enough for them to fit on. "We just need to do this before either Suki, my dad, Gran Gran, or Katara finds out."
"Why? Afraid they might spoil the stupidity?" Zuko asked hoping one of the listed members of his family would save him.
"Ha ha," Sokka responded setting the ice slab on the ground and holding it as the kids climbed on.
"Is it safe for those kids to get on?" Zuko asked starting to worry about his friend's sanity. "I'll just watch from up here and go after you."
"Zuko shut up and get on!" Sokka whined stomping his foot making Zuko freak out over the fact that the snow mountain they were standing on could cave at any given moment.
"Oh he's scared," one of the boys said grinning. Zuko didn't like that boy, he was the little devil who filled his pants with snow and stolen his coat and thrown it into a puddle. The poor fire benders arms were covered with goose bumps but he was too stubborn to borrow one of Sokka's old coats. "He's a scaredy lion."
"Move over," Zuko muttered sliding in beside the boys. He was going to regret this. Holding onto the edges of the ice for dear life Sokka gave them a running start before leaping on himself the slab carrying not only the two teens but six boys threatened to break under their weight as they flew down, and break it did.
Thrown from the ice the boys rolled down the hill gathering speed as they neared the Southern Water tribe walls. Sokka and Zuko held each other close as they screamed for their lives, the younger boys cheering with glee behind them.
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Katara, Suki, Gran Gran, Pakku and Hakoda all arrived at the walls to the Southern Water tribe in time to see a sled full of boys racing towards them. With a snap the board broke sending the boys flying off as they continued down the hill.
The crash filled their ears as Sokka and Zuko slammed face first into the frozen wall, the smaller boys crashing into them as well. Racing over the adults helped to pull the younger ones off before they looked down at Sokka and Zuko, both boys tangled together once more their faces in the snow.
"Are we dead yet?" they heard Sokka mutter.
"No in too much pain to be dead," Zuko replied trying to sit up, his back popping quietly, "I'm going to feel that in the morning."
"Are we dying," Sokka asked as he sat up as well.
"No," Katara answered glaring at them, "but you'll wish you were when I get done with you two." Sokka and Zuko exchanged a look as they realized just how many people were staring at them.
"I think she's mad at us," Zuko muttered to Sokka his eyes not leaving Katara's face.
"No she's mad at you," Sokka corrected stretching out his shoulders, "she's used to these kinds of things from me. You on the other hand are supposed to be the mature one."
"I hope you all learned a very valuable lesson in all this," Katara continued to glare at them her motherly instincts kicking in.
"I learned that Sokka and Zuko are the best," one of the boys from the sled said grinning crazily getting a cheer from the rest of the kids who seemed to have taken a liking to the young fire bender very quickly.
"I learned that the slab of ice was not strong enough to hold eight people and we need a bigger piece when we go again," Sokka replied looking back at the hill, "or we should split up and go in teams down."
"I learned your ice is trying to kill me," Zuko said hoping Katara wouldn't be too mad. He'd kind of ruined her trip back home.
Moving to her knees Katara wrapped her arms around the fire bender and kissed his check grinning. "You are such an idiot," she said causing him to grin also.
"But you love it," he said knowing she wasn't mad at him.
"I'm not sure why some days though," she giggled before kissing him on the lips.
W++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++W
Kanna watched as her granddaughter kissed the boy, a smile over both of their faces. Maybe she was worried about nothing. Looking at the young Fire Lord he didn't seem so bad. He seemed like any other teenage boy. He reminded her of Sokka… that one thought made Kanna worry again.