It's really bad...but I won't apologize for this! Hope you enjoy.
Surrounded by the dim, glowing light of the crystals in the cave, their prison, the atmosphere was oddly conducive to deep, emotional conversations about the past. Of course, a person listening in might find their ears bleeding from all the angst and gooey-ness, but that was not the point. When Katara offered to heal his scar, it was as though someone had finally started to wrap the last required length of duct tape around his fractured soul.
Using the same inelegant metaphor, one could say that when Aang broke into the cave, that length of duct tape was yanked back by the same hand which had so carefully fixed it initially. This is where we find our young people, and Uncle Iroh, of course, at the crossroads of destiny. One desperately clinging to the girl that mothered him and loved him when he'd lost everything else, one who'd offered the sun and the moon to another, without the slightest idea, and one who'd gone out on a limb and trusted, for the first time in years, a person other than his uncle, unknowingly waiting to see the result.
"Aang!" Katara called, witnessing the young boy breaking into the cave. She smile, reaching down and catching Zuko's hand, tugging on it slightly.
He gave her a sharp look, surprised by the gesture. Being touched by this girl he'd, for her association with the avatar, chased, fought, and nearly killed. He looked down at her, blinking owlishly, and while she was beginning to move towards the avatar, her eyes fixed on the little boy, her hand squeezed his and pulled him along at her side.
It wasn't until they both caught sight of his uncle, hardly hidden behind the Avatar, that she let his hand go. He felt the loss acutely, but it was dampened by her smile. She smiled at him, for the first time. It was warm, and kind, and everything good. In that moment, this beautiful girl was a goddess to him, she deserved his worship and loyalty because she hadn't left him. When another option showed up, a better option, she'd taken hold of his hand and kept him anyways.
Throughout the ensuing battle, he stayed by her side, fought with everything he possessed for his uncle and for this girl, she would be his salvation, he decided, not that it mattered much. His Uncle was captured, the Avatar was hit by his sister's lightning, and they made their escape on the back of the same flying bison he'd tracked across the world.
Even as Aang was dying, he caught Katara's look. She was asking him to release her from the promise she'd made him, the offer she'd given to help. Of course, he gave it, peace settling over him and his scar suddenly feeling...well, not at all that bad.