Probending Circuit Round 2: AU
Position Earthbender.
Task: Aang isn't found!AU
Prompts:
#6: Emotion: Anger - 2 points
#11: Quote: "Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better - 3 points
#12: Quote: "Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light - 3 points
Word Count: 1 741
Dedicated to my sister XD
Prince Zuko. That was his name. Katara sat back on her bed after hearing the guards speak her captor's name from the other side of the door. She wasn't being mistreated, she was given her own room, a comfortable bed and a warm fire, with plenty of clothes to wear, and was invited to dine with 'The Prince' each night, and each night, she declined, opting for food to be brought to her room instead, she never demanded to go anywhere outside the little box that was entirely hers - 'The Prince' ordered his men never to enter without a direct order. The only thing she wanted was her brother.
One Month Earlier
"It's not getting away from me this time." Sokka stated smugly. "Watch and learn, Katara, this is how you catch a fish."
Katara looked at her brother sceptically, they'd been out fishing for the better part of an hour, with no fish whatsoever to take back to the tribe. Looking into the water, the young waterbender spied a small fish and got an idea. Taking off her mitten, she began to clumsily bend the water with the fish in it to above the surface and toward the canoe.
"Sokka! Look!" She said as she brought the fish closer.
"Shhh, Katara. You'll scare him away. Mmmm, I can already smell it cooking!"
"But Sokka! I caught one!" The sphere of water was almost within her reach. "I caught one- Hey!" She overestimated the movement she needed to put the fish in their basket and ended up bending it right onto Sokka's spear.
"AAH!" Sokka yelped, finally turning to his sister. "Why is it, every time you play with magic water, I get soaked?"
"It's not magic, it's Waterbending." She stated dryly, ignoring her brother's agitated glare. "And it's-"
"Yeah, yeah! An ancient art, unique to our culture. Blah, blah, blah... Look, I'm just saying, if I had weird powers, I'd keep my weirdness to myself."
"You're calling me weird? I'm not the one who makes muscles at myself every time I see my reflection in the - AHH!"
The two were suddenly swept along the current towards a giant iceberg at an alarming rate. Katara started to panic.
"Watch out! Go left! Go left!" Katara called to her brother, but all was in vain, for a pair of ice blocks crashed into their canoe and thrust them up onto a small platform of ice, stranded.
"You call that left?"
"If you didn't like my steering, then you could have just Waterbended us out of the ice." He retorted, making eccentric gestures at the word 'Waterbended'.
"So it's my fault"
"I knew I should have left you at home, leave it to a girl to screw things up."
All the anger inside Katara boiled over and she spun around to yell at her brother, loosing control of her Waterbending as she did so, shoving the iceberg they had been about to hit out of the way, and exposing a large, Fire Nation ship in its place.
"You are the most sexist, immature, nutbrained-"
"Uhhh, Katara?" Sokka said, looking over her shoulder as she sent waves of water flying right at the ship that was headed towards them, his sister turned around in time to be hauled up onto the deck and knocked out cold.
When she woke up, a boy with a scar over his eye was standing at the foot of her bed.
"Impressive Waterbending. Although, I fail to see how you are a waterbender given that the Fire Nation killed all of them years ago."
"I guess I'm the exception."
"You wouldn't happen to be able to control any of the other elements, can you?"
"No."
"Hmm, you'd make an excellent gift for my father, even more so if we discover that you are, indeed, the Avatar."
They came to stop at a port, and two soldiers escorted her off the ship, she turned around and saw her brother, in seemingly good condition walking behind her. Zuko looked at her for a moment and gave her guards some money.
"Get her whatever she wants." He said, stalking off to be with who she presumed to be his large-bellied mentor, he was mid-stride when he turned back around,
"Not anything she can turn into a weapon." Before continuing to the fat kindly man who sometimes snuck her extra dumplings.
Sokka was dragged off to follow the prince around, while she was free to browse the stores for trinkets.
When they were out of earshot of the girl, Iroh turned to Zuko,
"You had better have done that for the right reasons, Prince Zuko."
"I need her to be more cooperative, so I'm buying cooperation from her, think of it as an investment."
"You know, Prince Zuko, walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Zuko snapped, his temper quickly flaring.
"The girl could be a good, loyal friend to you, my nephew, if you would just let her in."
"Why would I want her as a friend?" Anger rising.
"She is your opposite, Prince Zuko, you two would balance each other out. Nature is full of opposites: Tui and La, Yin and Yang, Sunrise and Sunset, Earth and Air, Water and Fire. You must look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. Your Firebending would improve if you learned from the Waterbenders, they compliment our art." He paused. "And it would be nice for you to have a friend to talk to."
"I HAVE FRIENDS!"
"You have employees, Zuko, there is a difference."
"ARGH!" Flames shot out of his nostrils and fists, the prince turned and stormed off, muttering, "Go drink some tea."
Meanwhile, Katara had happened upon a ship with red sails and beautiful goods, there she found a Waterbending scroll, and took it to the counter to pay, but when the man- a pirate - stated what it was, the guards took her arm and said she wasn't interested.
The pirate considered her for a moment, and tilted his head to the side. His colleagues started crowding around them, cutting them off from the exit.
"These boys aren't bothering you, are they, little miss?"
Katara just nodded, and at once all the pirates on the ship attacked the soldiers and shoved them off the ship, she heard a loud splash and almost immediately they cast off and started sailing away, the guards hopelessly trying to pull themselves out of the water.
She was given a small room in the hull of the ship, and offered her food. They travelled for some time before stopping on a little river to camp for the night. As they ate dinner, the pirates asked how she happened to run into the Fire Nation.
"I was fishing with my brother, and we were very far away from our village, and all of a sudden we were captured. I was prisoner for about a month, then we went shopping and I guess you know the rest."
"Why'd you choose a Southern Water Tribe scroll? Isn't your teacher good enough?"
"I don't have a teacher." Katara said looking down, "All the people in my tribe are non-benders."
That instant, she knew she had made a mistake. Something flashed in the leader's eyes as he studied her.
"Well," He said, "No wonder the Fire Nation wants you, you must be pretty valuable."
Katara said nothing and stared down at her soup. Suddenly realising what he meant.
She had to get away before they sold her off to the highest bidder.
She waited until all of them had fallen asleep around the fire before slowly and quietly getting up, and retreating into the bushes, not noticing her mother's necklace had fallen off in her sleep.
After a few minutes of walking, she heard a commotion coming from the campsite, so she broke into a sprint, not realising that she would run smack into Prince Zuko himself. He grabbed her wrists and pulled her close so she could feel his breath on her lips.
"I'll save you from the pirates." Voice low and strangely sincere, he took her hand and dragged her up a hill towards his ship, which they soon discovered was surrounded by pirates.
They had fought for a few minutes, but the pirates were no match for Zuko's skilled Firebenders, Katara had even used a move she had seen on the scroll to knock a few into the water. When the rest of the pirates had been captured and tied up, they took Katara and he brother back on board and locked them in their rooms.
A few hours later, Zuko entered, with tea that his Uncle had purchased, two cups, she noticed.
Drinking the tea, Zuko saw a small cut on her arm.
"You're hurt." He stated, grabbing a medical kit that had apparently been under the bed the whole time. "Let me help." He reached out for her arm, at first she was a bit suspicious, but as he treated her wound, he was gentle.
"You're different to all the other Fire Nation citizens I've come across."
"How so?"
"You seem to actually care."
"How many Fire Nation people have you happened across?"
"Only the ones who killed my mother." There was something in her voice that stopped him pressing her with more questions, so instead; he took his uncle's advice.
"I'm sorry, I lost my mother too."
Katara's eyes widened, he had finished with her arm and was now holding her hand loosely in his own. All of a sudden he awkwardly reached into his pocket and pulled out a familiar object.
"Here, one of my men found it with the pirates."
Katara stared at him in awe before she took her mother's necklace out of his hands and put it around her neck, keeping her hand there as though it somehow connected her to her mother.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome." He stood up to leave, taking the tray with him. He turned back before he was out the door,
"You can see your brother, from now on. I'd like it if you were my guest instead of my prisoner. Perhaps one day we can call each other friends."
"I still don't trust you."
"I know."
Despite what she said, Katara found herself agreeing to dine with the prince that night. And every night after that.
Author's Notes:
First ATLA fic! Yay! Before you start on the 'healing scene' this is set before they met Jeong Jeong, and therefore before Aang burnt her, so she didn't know she had healing powers XD
Anyway, I don't normally ship Zutara, but for this task, it seemed right. It's dedicated to my sister because she loves Zutara as much as I love Linumi.
I hope you liked it and please feel free to R and R!
Judges: Could you pretty please with sweetcakes on top send me my score with any feedback you have? (after they are officially released, of course). Also I'm Australian so I use Australian spelling XD
Thank you so much!
SMP xxx