A Really Bad Day
"That's it Zuko." Mai says abruptly to Zuko, infuriatingly blank faced. "We're through."
Immediate anger is his first response, he just can't help it.
"What? Why?" is his outraged response. Not yet yelling but just pushing it.
"Oh you know why. Let's face it Zuko. You don't want to be here. Especially not with me." she answers.
"What are you talking about? Of course I do!" Zuko exclaims in his defense.
"No you don't." Mai continues to disagree.
"Then where do I want to be Mai? Huh? Tell me that. Enlighten me. Because obviously there's something I'm missing here."
"You know. You want to be with that girl. The Avatar's girl. The waterbender." she says like it should be obvious.
Zuko is speechless for a second. Then "No I don't! Are you crazy? Where did this come from?"
Mai gives a dark chuckle. "Where did this come from? You really want to know? This came from all the longing looks you give her whenever she's around! The way I see your mind wandering off when you're around me! The way you're obviously not as happy with me as you used to be! That's where this came from!" she says, her mask dropping and her voice raising a little.
"You're imagining things! There's nowhere else I'd rather be! Especially not with Katara!"
"Katara." Mai spits with a disgusted look on her face. "Oh so she's Katara is she? Don't give me that crap Zuko. I know when I'm not wanted. And I'm not going to waste my time here pretending that I am. Goodbye." she finishes and turns on her heels and walks out of the door and into the night.
Zuko watches her go. His first love. He doesn't bother to go after her, knowing a lost cause when he sees one. His first feeling is heartache and loss. The attack was completely random. He had no idea that this was coming and it had obviously been building up for a while. Then he starts to think about the cause of the attack. Katara. He doesn't deny that while he was on the run with the Avatar that he developed SOME feelings for her, but those were brief and long gone. Especially after he and May got back together. So he doesn't have a clue what she was talking about. He gave Katara no special looks. Only those appropriate for the girlfriend of his friend. He also never had a wandering mind. He just spaced out from lack of sleep sometimes. Being Fire Lord does that to you. And he was happy. Happier than he's ever been. May had just been overreacting to absolutely nothing at all. He wallows in self-pity for so long that the rest of the evening goes by without him noticing. Eventually, Zuko comes to a decision with a sigh. Not wanting to deal with any of this sober, he goes to a bar to forget for a while.
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The usual thugs are there when Zuko walks in despite the late hour. They all look up when he walks in, trying to size him up. He just shoots them all his meanest glare from underneath his cloak's hood. He's not in a mood to take anybody's crap.
"Hey kid. What do you...?" a gruff voice starts to ask and puts his hand on Zuko's shoulder.
Big mistake. Zuko spins around, knocking the hand off of him, and punches the guy in the face so hard that he falls over with the unexpected force and hits the side of a table which knocks him out. All eyes are on Zuko after that and stay on him, but he just ignores them. He walks up to the bartender and asks for the strongest thing he's got. It's going to be a long night.
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Two hours and too many drinks to count later, Zuko leaves the bar stumbling. Not necessarily in his right mind, he goes to the first place he can think of. Katara's house. Not really one of his best ideas. When he gets there, the place is dark and quiet. Which is to be expected at such a late hour but this minor setback doesn't stop Zuko. He merely starts to bang on the door. Soon enough, he gets exactly what he wants. Katara wakes up and comes to the door. She looks like she had been asleep for quite some time. He's sad to see that she's beautiful even when coming out of sleep.
"Zuko?" she says puzzled. "What are you doing here so late?"
"Mai broke up with me." Zuko says, sounding so drunk and heartbroken that the only thing Katara could do was to step aside and allow him to come inside and lead him to the couch.
"I'm so sorry Zuko." Katara answers in her most sympathetic voice. Zuko rarely gets so emotional and she knows to take him very seriously when he does. "Tell me exactly what happened. I thought you two were so happy together."
"That's the thing." Zuko begins gruffly. "We were...or at least I thought we were."
"But why?" Katara asks imploringly.
Something switches off inside of Zuko at that point. Something that isn't really ready to believe how impossible his situation is. "You!" he jumps up and points at Katara. "It's all YOUR fault!"
"What?" Katara cries indignantly. "How is it MY fault?"
"If May didn't think I was in love with you then maybe we would still be together right now!" Zuko answers.
"What? Why would she think that?" Katara answers so completely shocked and confused at her own tumultuous emotions that she didn't notice Zuko's sudden change in behavior.
"She says I give you longing looks. And that I space out. And that I'm not happy with you. Isn't that crazy? Any feelings I ever had for you are long gone!" Zuko says in the heat of the moment, determined to convince himself of this. That his feelings are truly gone.
Katara is suddenly rendered speechless for a second. "You. You had feelings for me?" she stutters out hopelessly. This was an impossibility for Katara. When she finally started to trust Zuko after he joined their group and started to develop her own feelings for him, she had always accepted that he would be unattainable. Not only because he had May waiting for him somewhere, but also because he was just so removed from the rest of them that it had never seemed like he could like her. It's why she gave in to Aang's easy love. He was always there and so willing, but this changed everything. It's almost too good to be true. She might be dreaming.
At her question, all of Zuko's fire leaves. He had been sure she had known. Especially after that play they saw that had shown them as a couple. He thought that maybe someone had found out about his feelings and just assumed Katara returned them, even though he was sure she didn't. If she really didn't know then apparently he had just told her himself. Now what is he supposed to do?
"Well...I um...it doesn't matter. You were Aang's girl. I had no right to have those kinds of feelings for you anyway." he answers heatedly.
"Aang's girl? I belong to no one. I choose who I like and who I don't like. Besides, what if I just so happened to return those feelings? Then what Zuko?" Katara answers, responding to his words as a blush starts to creep up her face.
Zuko falls silent at her words. Embarrassed at how he rushed into conclusions but also surprised that maybe she might have returned his feelings. After a minute or so of silence, Zuko's most coherent thought is one that's telling him to leave and sort all of this out later when he's in his right mind. "Excuse me." he says and stands. "But I think I should probably go now." Then proceeds to walk to the door.
"Zuko?" Katara says softly from her spot on the couch where he left her. She watches as her last true hope walks out of her door.
It took all of the strength he had left not to look back and to keep walking.
When he returns to the palace, he doesn't remember most of the walk back except for maybe a few burning trees that were left in his wake. Either way they weren't of that much importance to him anyway, he just lies down and goes directly to sleep.
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The following day is one filled with a drenching rain. How ironic of nature to give him weather that perfectly fits his mood? Although, to his bitter disappointment, the rain only reminded him even more of Katara and all that he could remember of the night before which was bad enough. So throughout the rest of the day, he did his duties mindlessly and often would let out a frustrated scream followed by a burst of fire. This was only unfortunate for those around him at one of these outbursts.
At one point in the day his uncle, who happened to be visiting from Ba Sing Se, stopped him to have a talk.
"Nephew, I have happened to notice there is quite a bit of frustration and anger coming from you today. Did something happen to you last night?"
To this question he only received a glare.
"Aaaah I see. Affairs of the heart often leave many a great man with bitter disappointment. To you I can only say this: follow your heart. For even though it is a sad and lonely trail sometimes, what you find at the end may be worth it eh?" he says with a knowing glint in his eyes. "Besides, I've had quite a few run-ins with the ladies myself you see. I know you may feel a bit inferior but trust me, Nephew, one day you will be giving a young lad advice too." he says with a hearty laugh and slaps Zuko on the back with so much force it leaves him coughing.
"What was that for?" Zuko exclaims.
"I just wanted to hear your wonderful voice. And now that that's accomplished, I think I'll go have some tea." he responds and walks off, whistling a song that Zuko had never heard before.
"Crazy old man." he mutters and proceeds to continue on his day of gloom and doom.
The rain is still pouring even as night falls and Zuko's mood still hasn't let up. So he decides to take a walk even though he gets soaking wet. It doesn't matter to him. The only thing that'd make his day better is if he got sick. Unknowingly, Zuko's feet decide to take him back to Katara's house which he only notices when he's standing in front of her door. He hears his uncle's voice vaguely in the back of his mind saying 'follow your heart'. He takes a deep breath and doing that he knocks twice loudly on her door.
"Zuko?" Katara says, eyes wide and again surprised, when she opens her door and takes in his appearance of looking like a drowning cat.
He says nothing as he takes in her appearance. Unsure why he'd never seen the depth of his feelings before, but now. Here he is. An unexplainable look then passes through Zuko's eyes right before he leans down and gently places his wet lips onto hers. A shock of pure bliss rushes through them both at the initial contact and when her response is not to shove him off but to shyly kiss him back, Zuko knows then that following his heart was worth it.
AN: This is my first Avatar: The Last Airbender Fanfic so leave a review and tell me what you really think. Don't spare my feelings. A nice cry and a lowered self-esteem never hurt anyone.
Btw: this is a one-shot not a whole story.