Continuity Info: Set shortly after the events of The Western Air Temple. Slight spoilers, but nothing major.

Denim

"What are you doing?"

Zuko was sitting (innocently enough, he thought) on the edge of one of the Temple's many fountains, his knife in one hand, a bundle of cloth in the other. He had been cutting the latter with the former for several minutes when Katara had appeared, seemingly from nowhere, to ask him the question in her best accusatory voice. "Preparing for Aang's next training excercise," he answered humbly, not ceasing his work or daring to look up at Katara's sure-to-be-frigid gaze.

"By slicing up our supplies?" she scoffed sarcastically. "Oh yes, that's going to help Aang learn Firebending just WONDERFULLY."

The Prince sighed. He'd known from the start Katara's would be the hardest trust to earn; she had offered it to him far easier once, and he'd spat in her face for her troubles. Given that, it was unsurprising that the Waterbender would act the way she had since his arrival at the Temple. "Unsurprising," however, did not equal "less frustrating". Everywhere Zuko went, everything Zuko did, she was there, watching him like a Sabretoothed Moose Lion, ready with a snappy taunt or a rude insult or a thinly-veiled threat (with many of her words to him falling into the overlap between all three). For a while, he'd been content to let her simply do as she pleased; she had every right to feel the way she did, and the Prince knew he was more than worthy of her scorn. Now, however...on this day, in this moment, Zuko just wanted her to stop. He wanted her to believe that this time, when he'd said, "I have changed", he'd meant it.

That meant it was time to take action. With one last cut, Zuko tore a long, thick length of the cloth away from the larger part. He sheathed his knife, putting it down next to where he sat, and took that length of cloth in his hands. The rest of it was left on Zuko's other side. The Prince's eyes finally lifted upwards, meeting Katara's gaze (which, as expected, was quite cold) with a look of resolve. "Actually, it's an ancient Fire Nation tradition," Zuko answered her, voice matching the look on his face, "Firebending can be very effective at close range if you know how to use it, so we often train to learn how we can Bend best when the enemy is right in front of us."

Katara's fists clenched. Was he talking about her?

"We do that," Zuko continued, "by taking a piece of rope, leather, or cloth," and at that last word his voice raised up for a moment, "and using it to tie one of our wrists to the wrist of a partner, forcing us to stay close to each other. We then spar until the material holding the two wrists together breaks."


The Prince then did just that, taking one end of the cloth and wrapping it tightly around his wrist, leaving its remainder to hang limply. For a minute, the two of them simply stood there in silence. Katara simply continued to stare at him, trying to read his gaze to see if he was being honest or not. Zuko was hardly one for pranks, she knew, but he was Fire Nation; deceit seemed to run in their blood, and this "ancient Fire Nation tradition" was a perfect way to ensure Aang could not run away should things get dangerous. "Show me." she said challengingly.

Zuko's good eye widened. He'd thought HE would have to be the one to challenge HER; instead, she'd taken the initiative. "You're a Waterbender," he said dismissively, knowing he had to make this convincing, "It wouldn't work."

"I'll determine THAT for myself," Katara retorted. "Now, are you gonna show me this little excercise, or are you just scared a Waterbender can beat you at your own game?"

Sighing dramatically, the Prince held the free end of the cloth up to her. "Fine," he said. "We'll give it a shot."

With a solemn look, Katara took the cloth and wrapped it around her wrist. Once the knot was tied, her hand and Zuko's were only inches apart, tightly held together. For a brief moment, their palms crossed. It was a stranger thing than either one had anticipated, being linked together like this. The Prince gave a soft tug to see how tight the cloth was wrapped; it held. "Ready?" he asked.

"Always."

"Then let's begin..."

Zuko's free arm immediately sliced up at her, flames spiralling around its length. Katara ducked, uncorking her flask and letting its water flow out onto her palm. Trying to Waterbend onehanded was tricky, but nothing the girl could not handle. Soon, her forearm was coated in it, a tendril like the ones she'd used against Azula in Ba Sing Se. Whipping it at Zuko's legs, she felt herself lift a bit with him as he jumped out of the way. "Still think Waterbending doesn't work for this?" she asked, taking another crack at him.

The Prince sidestepped this time, pulling back to let a fireball fly from his hand. Katara kept her body out of the way, but was unable to move her arm in time: the fireball cut through her tendril, causing the water that formed it to slide off her hand and fall to the ground. Thrusting her hand upward, Katara caused the water to spout upwards before it seeped into the stone floor. That took Zuko by surprise, and the swift geyser slammed straight into his face. Unbalanced, he stumbled backwards a bit, pulling Katara by arm. She leapt up to try and captialize on his disorientation, but that proved a mistake: moving forward caused Zuko to lose his balance completely, and soon the both of them fell to the ground, Waterbender on top of Prince.


After the shock of the moment had passed, Katara realized exactly what kind of position she was in, and hastily slid off him. She saw that the impact of the fall had severed the cloth; according to Zuko's "tradition", that meant their spar was over. Zuko realized that as well, sitting up and looking over at her. "Convinced?" he asked softly.

She slid the cloth off her wrist. "That this is a real training excercise, yes."

The Prince sighed, for real this time. He knew it would take more than a simple spar to get her to trust him, but he'd hoped they could have made a little more progress. Still, it was a start. He rose to his feet and retrieved his knife and cloth. "Good. Then you won't mind if I use this excercise with Aang." he said, and the Waterbender could sense a distinct sense of dissappointment in his voice, though he was clearly trying to hide it.

With that, Zuko walked off silently. Somehow, he'd get her to come around.

Katara, for her part, simply sat where she was, cloth still on her wrist. She tried not to think too long about where she and Zuko had both been in relation to the other seconds before, but the more she tried not to, the more her mind came back to it. Watching Zuko walk away, her hand stroked the cloth softly.

End