HAPPENSTANCE – Laundry Day
Modern College AU: Katara wanted a quiet day and to do laundry. That was all. Instead she ends up saving Zuko from a flood, running away from exes, breaks her nose, and generally having the worst of luck. Unless you count meeting Zuko as lucky.
All Katara wanted was a quiet, peaceful day of studying.
She had decided to stay in the dorms that three-day weekend because she knew nearly everyone in the building would be gone so she'd be able to sleep in without hearing Haru and Teo racing down the hall. Plus she wouldn't have to set aside time to help Aang study, not that she minded it was just nice having time to yourself sometimes. Even Sokka had gone home because she refused to do his laundry for him so he wanted to ask Gran-Gran. For once, she could have a day to herself. She could have a day for sleep, Netflix, and not-rushed laundry.
At least that was the plan until she walked into the flooded laundry room in the basement.
Her basket fell to the ground. "What did you do?!" she yelled in panic, watching a young man with black hair and a distinct scar over his right eye sitting on top of a washer while pulling his hair.
He looked at her and had the decency to look apologetic. "I don't know! I followed the stupid pictures, but when I came back it was like this!"
The laundry room only had four washers and three dryers—it was almost always crowded. Part of the reason Katara stayed was to finally get time to wash without rushing for other waiting college students. Of course this idiot, in pajamas by the way, would flood the room the one time she thought doing laundry wouldn't be a big thing.
If she could, she'd punch Pajama Boy into last week so he wouldn't mess up the second time around. Katara took a deep breath, trying to remember to not be so angry. She learned a few weeks into the school year that issues with laundry was common for first year students, since a lot of people followed in her brothers' footsteps in always having someone else to do laundry for them. She was unfortunately that other person growing up.
"What pictures?" she asked in what Katara hoped was her most patient and understanding voice.
He pointed at a large poster with step-by-step instructions on how to do laundry. She felt a vein pop on her forehead.
"How the hell did you mess this up when you read the instruction?!"
He glared at her. "Hey, it's not my fault if those are wrong or the stupid machine," here he kicked the washer across from him that was still spilling water, "is possessed by La's vengeful spirit." He dropped his head back into his head and groaned loudly. "Of course I messed this up," she heard him mumble.
She sighed. Katara pulled the hairtie loose from the bottom of her braid and twisted her long still-braided hair into a bun. She was vaguely aware of him looking at her again as she began folding the bottom of her jeans up to her knees.
The water felt slick from the soap when she finally stepped into the room. She walked right to machine to open the door, but realized it was locked. That probably explained why he'd been sitting across from the problem miserably instead of trying to mop up the water. "It's locked," he said, though she already figured that out for herself. Katara ignored him and walked past the cause of this mess and to the edge of the wall where she knew the water control had to be.
Luckily, she'd seen her dad and Bato fix the old washer back home so often she more or less had an idea of what to do. With a wide grin she twisted a knob or two. The sound of pouring water eventually came to a full stop.
She heard him sigh deeply in relief behind her and turned around proudly with her arms crossed. "There."
He smiled at her softly and she realized, now that she wasn't completely furious that some idiot ruined her chance to do laundry, that he was a bit attractive. "Now I just have to tell the main office I flooded the room." There was laughter in his words despite the tension in his shoulders.
Katara waded over to him and uncrossed her arms. "You also owe me one. I'm running out of clothes and you kinda ruined my only chance to clean the rest." A wave of misery returned to his face and she laughed good-natured. "I'm Katara by the way. I'm on the third floor."
His eyes went wide and Katara noticed a slight blush on his light cheeks. "Uh, Zuko. First floor." They shook hands.
"If you want, I can go with you to the main office. I'll probably have to tell them how I turned off the water."
He stood up on the washer and walked over it to the next one, closest to the door, before swinging to the dry ground outside the room. Zuko then offered her his hand as she walked back over to the door. "I'd like that, thank you."
X
"Sorry, again," Zuko repeated, taking another spoonful of frozen yogurt from his small bowl after a brief pause in conversation.
After reporting the flood, Zuko put all of his soaked clothes into a large garbage bag (then another just for good measure) and asked Katara if she wanted to go with him to the Laundromat a few blocks from school. He insisted on paying for her laundry and giving her a ride to make up for everything if she'd teach him how to do laundry properly. She laughed at his expense but said it was a deal.
They finished laundry about half an hour ago and were now at her favorite frozen yogurt shop in Omashu's downtown. "A well deserved treat for a long day," she had insisted.
He wasn't bad company, she learned soon enough. Despite her wish to spend the weekend alone from her family and friends, Zuko was mellow when he wasn't wracked with guilt or anger. Plus other than teaching him how to do laundry she didn't feel the need to fulfill this mother role she typically had with the others. It was refreshing.
It turned out he was a political science major because of family pressure and minoring in both history and classical literature out of a passion for mythology and ancient history. It turned out he was Sokka's age and knew her brother since Sokka was double majoring in political science and history. "Oh yeah, that loud guy. He's also at the top of the class. Kinda annoying, though."
Katara wanted to laugh as she remembered her brother ranting to her about Zuko before, though she'd only ever known him as that-arrogant-outdoing-everyone-scar-faced-asshole. He and Sokka were so similar they could probably be good friends if it weren't for either's male pride. She ignored the thought and focused on the fact that Zuko was older than her and lived away from home longer but still had no clue how to do laundry.
After his 10th apology that day she threw a crumpled napkin at her current companion. "Quit that, it's not that serious." She then smirked. "If anything you should apologize to yourself. If I were you I'd feel more embarrassed than guilty."
Again, he gave her that small smile that forced Katara to appreciate the man's looks—scar or no scar. "So why biology and not pre-med like every other first year here?"
"Huh?" Katara was startled and almost missed the question. She knew her tan wouldn't be able to hide her embarrassment even if it managed to somehow hide her blush. "Oh, well I would like to do medicine. Maybe. But I also really like the idea of working in research. I figured I'd do that for a bit and then if I still feel an itch to heal people hand's on then I can always do med school in Ba Sing Sei or somewhere later."
She half-expected a "wow, that's impressive" or more questions like with Aang but was surprised when Zuko just nodded. "You're pretty lucky, then."
"What do you mean?" Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
He shrugged and scraped the bottom of his bowl. "I just mean it's great that you have such clear plans. You don't even sound at all worried even though the school year is almost over, which means you probably haven't had that hard a time in your classes." He ate the last of the cold treat before leaning back in his chair. "That's really lucky is all I'm saying."
She quirked an eyebrow. "Hm, I guess so. I never really thought about it that way." In all honesty, Katara had always thought her plan seemed pretty aimless and wished she would be able to just choose one or the other. She was even in a lab right now with Professor Hama who specialized in research on blood cells and next year she was supposed to start an internship at the local hospital to convince herself to stick to one thing or the other. It hadn't been successful.
"Shit."
Katara turned her attention back to Zuko. His eyes had gone incredibly wide all of a sudden before he quickly ducked his head down and to the left. She turned to see who he was looking at and noticed a pretty goth girl talking to a jumpy girl in all-pink at the front.
"Friends of yours?" she asked innocently.
He peeked around his fingers. Without looking at Katara he answered, "Sorta." She vaguely heard him mumble. "Take it to-go, take it to-go, take it to-go."
Understanding dawned on her all of a sudden. One of those girls was probably an ex of his. She turned again and noticed a third girl approach the two. Her posture was impeccable, she was wearing a red halter-top and matching skirt, and she had such a set a look of disdain Katara felt herself frown without even knowing her. As if sensing her, the girl turned her head and smirked when she looked over at them.
"Zu-Zu? Is that you, brother?" Her call was full of mischief as she walked over to their table with the other two girls in tow.
Katara heard Zuko sigh and turned to look at him again. "Hey Azula," he said not even trying to force a fake smile.
She turned her attention to face Katara. "Are you going to introduce me?"
Zuko glared at his sister and Katara wondered what kind of history he must have with his sister to be so blatantly cold to her in front of a stranger. Though her instincts told her she shouldn't feel surprised. She could almost feel the dark aura spilling from Azula.
"This is Katara. She lives in my building. Katara, this is my sister Azula, her friend Ty Lee, and—"
"The ex, Mai." Azula finished for him with a smirk.
If it weren't so awkward Katara would revel in victory at guessing so easily who these people were to Zuko.
"Ooh, we should join them!" Ty Lee exclaimed, her long braid bouncing back and forth.
"That's alright, we just finished." Zuko jumped in before Katara could even come up with something to say.
Ty Lee pouted. "Aw, that's too bad."
Azula's smirk only grew as she waved a hand in front of her dismissively. "Now, now, Ty Lee. We don't want to interrupt these two with whatever it is they're up to. After all there's nothing worse than having your sister tagging along on a date."
Katara frowned when she saw Mai turn her head down with a deep frown. What kind of person put her friend in such an uncomfortable position? Even more, what kind of friend rubbed it in? Even if this wasn't a date, it still seemed cruel.
Zuko stood up at that moment and Katara took it as her clue to follow. "Like I said, we were just leaving."
She found herself admiring his composure as they walked away and he said goodbye to each of the girls. "Bye," Katara repeated following him out.
She turned to drop her trash in the bin as she followed him out and when she tried to walk out the door felt something sharp slam into her face.
X
Funny enough, if this situation had been funny AT ALL, it was her own ex's friends that had caused the accident. Smellerbee, as the Freedom Fighter liked to be called, and Longshot had rushed into the yogurt shop and almost trampled her.
Apparently, they'd even shoved Zuko out of the way. However, as luck would have it, Longshot's incredibly bony elbow somehow managed to slam straight into her nose.
This was literally the unluckiest day of her life. She felt like Sokka.
"How are you feeling?" Zuko nervously asked from the driver's seat.
"Guess."
There was a brief pause before he tried again. "At least you had clean shirts to change into in my car."
She looked over at him, over the cast around her bruised nose, through narrowed eyes. "Lucky me."
He cleared his throat, hiding a chuckle, and kept his eyes on the road even though they were stopped at a light. "I spent the last few years growing up with my Uncle instead of at my father's with Azula. He's a bit…much at times but a really smart man. I used to be so miserable and angry all the time because of my scar…or other things but he got me through it."
Katara watched him attentively as he spoke, softening a bit. "What about your mother?"
Zuko glanced over at her. "She, uh, isn't around…anymore."
Her eyes widened. "I'm sorry."
"It's alright," he said, his voice soft and gravelly.
Instinctively her hand went up to the necklace that had been handed down from her Gran-Gran, to her mother, and now her. "I lost my mother when I was young too."
He looked at her and said, "Guess that's something we have in common."
They were quiet for a while after that. But then Katara felt the need to sneeze and doubled over in pain.
"Ouch," he winced empathetically.
Zuko parked the car in front of their building having just arrived. "You know my Uncle would probably say something like 'Sometimes clouds have two sides, a dark and light, and a silver lining in between. It's like a silver sandwich! So when life seems hard, just take a bite out of the silver sandwich.' Or something like that."
He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly as Katara stared at him confused before bursting out into a fit of giggles. "Maybe today wasn't so bad," she said in between.
"Really that worked?" He asked in shock. "I wasn't even sure what I was saying."
She wiped a tear from her eye. "Probably not the way you wanted it to," she said, "But yeah. It did."
He smiled. "Sorry today was so crazy."
"Other than the broken nose, I think you probably got the worse end of it."
They both laughed and got out of the car. The two new friends grabbed their laundry and walked in comfortable silence into the building. Katara stopped just as they got to the entrance for the first floor.
Katara signaled to the staircase with her basket. "Third floor."
"Oh," he said. Zuko tried to shake the disappointment off his face but Katara still caught it.
"Well, thank you for everything, Zuko." She said starting to walk toward the stairs.
"Katara?" She stopped. "Are you busy tomorrow?" Her eyes went wide. "I mean, it was fun hanging out today. And since it's a long weekend and everyone's gone maybe it'd be nice if we hung out again. Unless you had to study, which makes sense. We could hang out again some other time too—if you'd like, of course. I know I messed up the whole laundry room and then you had to deal with my stupid sis—"
"I just got "Love Amongst the Dragons" on DVD. I planned on watching it tomorrow, if you want to—"
"Yeah! That'd be…" he coughed into his hand. "That would be fun."
"3 o'clock?"
"3 o'clock."
They smiled at each other and waved goodbye, each heading back to their rooms. As Katara walked up the stairs she couldn't help but think how such a small coincidence led to such a big day. She looked forward to what tomorrow would bring.
X X X EN
Aghhhhhh, sorry it's not that great! I got some really bad food poisoning so on top of this being a day late, I rushed it and didn't even proof-read. I just wanted to post something for Zutara week already. I hope you all enjoy it.