Katara watched the evil firebender like a messenger hawk watches a cricket mouse, the slightest twitch, one wrong move and she would swoop, plucking him from the rest of the group and she would fling him far down into the canyon below where he would be dashed upon the rocks. She would not get fooled again, not by his little gestures of capitulation, his stoic acceptance of extra chores, the gathering of firewood and training Aang in firebending (not that it made any less of a workload for her, watching Zuko traipse about shirtless was a full time job).
It was all the little things that frustrated her, for instance just this afternoon Zuko had taken an extra trip topside of the temples and gathered a whole sackful of fire nation fruit, there was the hated papaya, paw paw and a few more that Katara didn't recognise. Having grown up on the South Pole the only fruit she was ever exposed to until journeying with Aang was dried or otherwise preserved and from the Earth Kingdom, where the temperate climate made such tropical varieties a luxury even there. The real jewel in the crown of Zuko's bounty however, was making Katara's traitorous mouth water, Zuko had found mangos, big ripe mangos tinged pink with readiness and with the most heavenly sweet aroma.
…….And now he had the nerve to hand them out to everybody…..like some sort of overly jolly winter solstice pagan minor deity, all clad in fire nation red. What he really should have done was give all his luscious mangos to her, she was the one who handled the food around here, and you could never really trust a firebender, she would have to taste them, all of them, just to make sure they weren't poisoned or rotten or some other sort of dastardly Fire Nation trick.
Her mind set she began to once again stalk Zuko, creeping, and sneaking, a ninja on a secret mission, she was able to spy the dirty shirtless betrayer chatting happily with Aang and The Duke.
Zuko and his mangos, damn him.
His knife flashed out like a silver fish and sliced the mango into three parts, he quickly crisscrossed the sides and turned them inside out into sweet little mango porcupine-iguanas. He gave one each to Aang and The Duke as Zuko began to messily eat the soft flesh around the pip, licking and lapping and biting.
Katara held back a moan.
Dirty dirty firebender, she thought, he was now licking and kissing up the rivulets of juice that had covered his hand and ran down his forearm, why can't he wash himself in the fountain like normal people.
Immediately visions of a naked Zuko lathering himself up at the fountain filled her imagination, dirty Zuko or clean Zuko, she couldn't decide which one was better.
Worse, which one was worse, he was not good, Zuko was bad, he was very bad and he needed to be punished. Katara remembered how Zuko had begged, almost demanded to be taken prisoner, to be tied up, to be punished, to be penitent. Her imagination's already well stocked Zuko collection added bondage Zuko, right next to bathtime Zuko and Asshole ponytail Zuko, this was going to require another metaphysical shelf.
Unbeknownst to the watcher, she herself was being watched.
"Toph, why is my little sister hiding on a ledge squirming and muttering to herself?"
Toph gave Sokka the blind earthbender equivalent of a long slow searching look.
"Trust me snoozels, you don't wanna know."