I wrote a fanfiction drabble about Zuko and Katara with an umbrella and people seemed to really like it so here I am writing more!
I got this idea and just fell in love with it 'cause who doesn't love situation comedies with a little Zutara rivalry mixed in?
Aang probably should have picked better people to watch his plants.
Katara, for one, grew up in Northern Alaska, a place with freezing temperatures and little vegetation. While her motherly nature made her quite fit for nurturing spuds, snow poppies were the farthest things from these exotic plants Aang had gathered over the course of his travels. She could take down anyone in her karate class, prepare meals that blew her family's socks off... heck, she could manipulate water! But in this area, she was well out of her comfort zone.
On the other hand, Zuko grew up in Florida, where plants oozed from every patch of grass. He learned how to take care of bulbs just like Aang's on his adventures with Uncle Iroh, too. As experienced as he was, Zuko had one major flaw when it came to vegetation: he lacked the amount of patience it took to watch a seed blossom, especially when he had to consistently take care of it even when it had not yet peaked from the soil.
What made Aang think that two completely opposite people with mismatched approaches to gardening would be able to properly care for a dozen amazing plants from around the world was a mystery to them both.
"I'm not doing this." Zuko folded his arms as soon as he entered the huge greenhouse. Bright colors burst all around them, and a sickly sweet aroma permeated the air, making his head hurt. Thick leaves sprouted from pots hanging from the ceiling. Everything was overpowering and, in a strange way, intimidating.
"Yes you are, Grumpy." Katara nudged him with her shoulder and examined a bright purple flower near the doorway. " 'Royal Satin'... that's a pretty fancy name for a flower."
"My uncle had those when we were in Africa. Those things reek when you water them. I had to throw it out the window while he was asleep."
Katara's eyes rolled. "I'll keep that in mind. What does the list say about feeding them?"
Zuko looked at the impossibly long list of feeding directions and scowled. This was way too long and WAY too complicated. Why had he agreed to this?
"Why don't we just spoon-feed them baby food and put bottles of milk next to their pots and leave? That should be enough to last them a week." He grumbled, plopping the list down on the table and scanning the room like it was a battlefield.
"Because plants don't have arms? Oh, and because plants don't drink milk." Katara smacked Zuko lightly on the head. "Be serious here."
"I'm always serious."
"Then you'll keep the wise-cracks to a minimum." Katara picked up the list and consulted it. "Let's see... Ah! Royal Satin. It says to 'gently hold the base of the stem and gingerly dig a small hole next to it until you can see the roots. Place a dash of water on the roots, then-"
"A dash?"
Katara raised her eyes to meet Zuko's. His face was contorted in a "you've-got-to-be-kidding-me" expression.
"Yes, a dash, Zuko. Apparently these are very precise instructions-"
"Precise? More like unnecessary and insane." Zuko plucked the list from Katara's hand and threw it on the table again. "Look, I took care of a bunch of plants when I was traveling with my uncle. I recognize almost every flower in this room, and I don't remember ANY of them having to have an exact 'dash' of water. You take care of them like you would any other plant."
"Slow your ego down, Mr. Green Thumb." Katara snatched the list back from the table. "Plants are sensitive things. If you don't pay attention to their needs, they'll die. Now, do you mean to tell me you haven't had a single plant die on your watch? Ever?" A hand rested on her hip.
"Not by neglect, no." Zuko blinked behind his shaggy hair before shaking it out of his eyes.
"What did you do, firebend at them and demand they submit to your will?"
Silence confirmed her jocular accusation.
"I knew it." Katara smugly scanned through the list, but her smile slipped from her face as she felt her brain turn to mush. She reread the same set of directions for "Royal Satin" twice before sorting out what was to be done first.
Katara dared to look up at Zuko. The 17-year-old was looking back at her, a snickering smile on his lips. He knew she had no idea what she was doing.
Unwilling to submit to the teen, Katara reread the directions with a fresh determination.
A determination that evaporated once she reached the seventeenth step.
"Okay, Green Thumb, I give in. What should we do first, and which plant should we start with?"
"I knew you'd give up."
Katara's face reddened in fury, but she stuffed down her anger as she followed Zuko to the back of the greenhouse.
The firebender studied the plant with orange flowers that towered over the two teens. It stood proudly next to the back exit.
Hmmm... silky petals, a white interior, soft fuzzy leaves... "This one's a Wool Petunia."
"A wool petunia? You don't expect me to believe that's its actual name, do you?" Katara arched her eyebrows in amusement.
Zuko gestured towards the tag sticking up out of the dirt. "See for yourself."
The waterbender stooped down and squinted. "Petunicus marmodicus. Wool Petunia... okay, that was just a lucky guess."
Zuko rolled his eyes at the girl and pointed to the petals. "Marmodicus became the world 'marmalade'. See the orange flowers?"
"Okay, okay! I get it! You know a lot about flowers." Katara threw her hands in the air and huffed. "So how do we take care of it, oh Master of the Marmodicus?"
"They like lots of sun. In fact, I don't know why he has it cooped up in this corner. It can barely get any light."
Zuko propped the exit door open with a rock, then slid the plant out into the sun.
"Zuko! Are you crazy?! You can't put a flower in direct sunlight like that!" Katara cried. She jumped outside and pushed the flower back into safety.
"Katara, I know what I'm doing! Iroh taught me this stuff when I was, like, fourteen. I've got it under control." Zuko tugged the pot back outside.
Katara clapped her hands in front of his face, inches from his nose. "Hello, is Zuko there? I need to speak to him so he can stop being a condescending know-it-all. Wake up! A flower needs shade and water. You can't bake it in the sun or it'll wither up like a raisin!"
"Plants needs sun just as much as it needs water. In fact, it probably needs it more."
"Look, why don't we just put it back inside, then we can move onto something a little easier for ourselves, okay?" Katara slid the pot back inside, then stepped in front of it protectively.
Zuko, seeing as he couldn't get the plant back outside without a nasty fight, sighed, then moved onto another one. "You want something that likes shade? Here's one. This is a Moon Flower."
Katara studied the milky white petals that sprouted into a fan-like shape. It was well-sheltered from the sun and actually looked sad in the dark.
"How much water does it need, Green Thumb?"
"Stop calling me that." Zuko closed his eyes and sighed, regaining his composure. "It needs about three cups every day. It drinks it up pretty fast."
"Only three cups? It's in a huge pot. Shouldn't it need more?" Katara stroked its flimsy stem.
"Three cups. That's it." Zuko walked to the facet on the other end of the door and poured water into a bucket until it was halfway full. He lugged it back onto the table with the Moon Flower.
Katara rotated her hand into a cupping motion and the water obeyed her movements, shifting out of the bucket and into the air. The liquid slid into the soil, slipping into the space around the stem. She counted the measurements in her head.
One cup... Two cups...
"That should be enough," Zuko said after Katara reached three cups.
Katara continued to pour water into the dirt.
"Katara, I said that's enough."
As if she didn't hear him, she continued.
"What are you, deaf?!" Zuko bent a small flame at the water in the air. The liquid turned into steam and rose before disappearing completely from sight.
"Hey! What was that for?!"
"You're going to drown the plant!
"I am not! I'm just trying to moisten the soil all the way through-"
"What about your precious directions, Katara? See, it says 'three cups of water daily'. You can argue with me, but you can't argue with the directions."
"The thing is gonna wither up and die from dehydration. Does that sound right to you?"
Zuko's nostrils flared and small puffs of smoke shot from his hands. "Ugh! That's it! Fine! How about this: I'll take care of this side of the room, and you take care of this side? Think that's fair?"
Katara stuck out her hand. "Deal."
The first day went by smoothly. Katara took the left side, and Zuko took the right (Katara later had the suspicion that he chose the right because he held the impossibly arrogant position that he was "right").
Katara moved her plants into the corners of the greenhouse and, when they became too full to jam more in, she hung towels over the ceiling's window panels to shield her precious bulbs from the sun. She stood there for two hours, watering the vegetation until the dirt in the pots was completely submerged. If she noticed the water had drained completely into the soil, she refilled it again until it was completely drenched. Careful to avoid sunlight, she worked tirelessly to try and give the flowers and plants every bit of moisture they needed.
Zuko, on the other hand, took the completely opposite approach. He dragged his plants outside, leaving them unveiled in the bright summer afternoon. He gave them the exact amount of food and water the instructions told him to, but he kept them all spread out across the outside of the greenhouse, setting up a flowery perimeter for the structure. The plants that the directions said needed shade were placed under a tree.
The two teens kept their dialogue to a minimum. They communicated only when one needed to borrow the directions from the other or one needed the other to move so they could get to the water faucet.
Plant-sitting, Zuko realized, was more fun than he had expected. He was getting paid to spend one hour doting on the plants and the other two hours of his shift could be spent firebending while the plants tanned.
The only downside was that a certain waterbending teenager kept bugging him with her lack of communication. When he made the deal, he didn't include complete and total dismissal of the other party in his negotiations, but apparently Katara added that little clause without him knowing it. She hardly looked at him, much less talked to him, and his small efforts to create conversation were snuffed out like a candle on a birthday cake. She murmured to herself while she worked, most likely about how annoying she thought he was.
After a while Zuko gave up. He simply catered to the plants, then practiced kickboxing or took a nap under the blue sky.
Katara began to enjoy her time with the plants. She talked to them and whispered words of encouragement to them. Zuko had tried to start conversations with her, but she ignored them because she knew they would eventually turn into a hot-headed battle of "Who has the best-looking plants?" Katara reminded herself of her job and got back to work, spending her entire three-hour shift with her swimming bulbs.
Something wasn't right.
Katara held the stem between her thumb and pointer fingers and frowned. Why was it... mushy?
When she arrived on Wednesday, she noticed the heads of her flowers had began to stoop like an old man over his bowl of cereal. The leaves were turning wimpy and the flower petals looked like prunes. The soil was so moist she could easily slip her finger through the slop until it reached the bottom of the pot. Water ringed the edges of the soil despite the twenty-four hours that had passed since she was last in the greenhouse.
Shouldn't the flowers have drunken the water already?
Katara glanced up at Zuko. He was gently nuzzling his plants, their color flashing in the sun. His eyes met hers for a second. Katara snapped her attention back to the plants, her pride flaring. She wasn't going to lose this battle. But what could she do?
More water! More shade!
Katara smiled feverishly as she bent another three cups of water into the Moon flower's soil. Let's see how Zuko's flowers would compare after THIS.
Meanwhile, Zuko pulled his hand through his shag of hair. This wasn't good. The flowers had crisped around the edges and the centers had taken on a brown hue. The leaves were flaky and a few of them even scattered on the ground. The stems were stiff and graying, and the soil was dry and crackling.
Zuko was perplexed. How could this be? With all his experience, he was sure his bulbs would be practically glowing by now! But here they were, dry and crackling. He knew he had put the right amount of water and food in the soil, but they were still dry as a desert.
A new determination sprouted in him when he glanced over at Katara's plants. They still had nice color and she seemed to be working swiftly and with ease. Zuko looked back at his plants. What could he do to stay in this deal?
More sun! More food!
Zuko stayed to work all day, constantly overturning the soil and reconsulting the directions. There was no way he was backing down.
"ZUKO!"
Zuko ran into the greenhouse, his face red and flustered. Katara had her cheeks in her palms and her eyes were trained on the pots. The soil was waterlogged and the petals on the stem were wilted almost completely. The leaves were leathery. The flowers were tinged brown. The entire plant was ruined.
"Zuko, I drowned them! All of them! They're completely soiled!"
Zuko chuckled softly.
"What on EARTH do you think is funny about this?!"
"I thought you were making a pun... you know, you soiled the plants? As in soil?..."
Katara's ears practically smoked.
All traces of humor left Zuko's face. "Well, that's bad, but not as bad as this..." The firebender gestured towards his area outside.
As Katara stepped into the sun, she gasped. There was not a single bit of green in the vegetation. Everything was singed to a crispy orange-brown. The stems were stiffer than a stick. The leaves crunch in her fingers and fell to the ground.
"Zuko, this... this is horrible... we failed..."
"No kidding..." Zuko rubbed the back of his neck and pinched his nose.
"Do you think we could save them?" Katara's blue eyes gleamed with hope. "Like, I could water yours and we can take mine outside so they can dry out?"
"I think we're far past that point, Katara."
The two teens stared at the plants, their stomach churning. Aang would be back the next day. There was no time for this!
"Okay, okay, okay... I have an idea."
"What, Zuko? Travel around the world in search of the plants and replace them?"
"No..."
"Burn down the greenhouse until nothing is left but ash?"
"No, Katara."
"How about we buy a bunch of plastic plants and spray paint them to be their original colors?"
Silence.
Katara blinked. "That's what we're gonna do, isn't it?"
Zuko smiled. "Yup."
Aang sighed as he stepped through his front door. The vacation was much needed and extremely fun, but it felt great to come back home. He plopped his keys on the counter.
Aang opened his fridge to get a cold pop and saw a note waiting for him:
Dear Aang,
Hope you had fun on vacation!
The plants were good, but they didn't eat all their vegetables and we had trouble getting them to bed on time.
Welcome home!
~Zuko and Katara
Aang smiled at his friends' jokes and popped the cap off the soda. He made his way outside and turned the corner into the greenhouse.
His flowers were at least ten times brighter than they were since he had left. The sun showed bright through the panels. The petals on the flowers were amazing, even better than he remembered.
Good job, guys. Aang smiled and turned to leave when he saw something beneath one of the tables. He stooped down and pulled out the tin bucket.
What's this?
...Marmalade sky?
Aang studied the bucket of paint and scratched his head. After a few moments, he shrugged. It was, after all, his favorite color. Why else would hey have gotten it?
That's the fic! It's not romantic, but it's adorable and I hope everyone likes it!