Avatar: The Inside Look
This is the characters post-series, as seen through Katara's point of view. These are the things I think she would notice. Every character will have a different theme to their musings and will notice different things. For example, Toph might comment on everyone's toughness and talk about her adventures/achievements after the war. After each character gets a "general musing", some actual plot shall ensue.
I think Katara is the kind of person that is really insightful in regards to other people's personalities and such. And this is how I see their friendship progressing...
Katara's Best Friends
"This is the stupidest thing that has ever occurred in the history of mankind." Stated a seemingly half-dead Zuko in the drollest tone, quite frankly, Katara has ever heard.
And for sure it put Mai's usual monotone to shame. Nonetheless, Katara whole-heartedly agreed with him. She put on an amused and relaxed face as Aang and her brother participated in a variety of tasks; the tasks, of course, were "tests of manliness". And at first she had been very insulted at the blatant sexism they were demonstrating; but then she was witness to Zuko's epic, truly epically epical, eye-roll when the idea was presented to him.
This assured her that being against this whole idea was a matter of intelligence and realism rather than "sensitivity" or "indignation" as was her original self-conscious thoughts.
She had to act blasé about the whole thing or else Sokka would begin to proclaim how she was all angry and insulted by the insinuation that "real men" are marked by feats of manliness that a woman could never hope to achieve or even come close to achieving. And honestly who the hell wants to sit through that moronathon?
She had the recurring urge to inquire if "fake man" was also a term and if it was what it's exact and official definition was. The look of blank stupidity on her brother's face as he searched for a witty comeback would have been worth so much; but she chose not to bother for her own sanity's sake.
She did finally give in to her pride in her own cleverness and turned to ask Zuko. He clearly got the joke and merely laughed instead of trying to answer the question seriously. Of course his laugh threw her for a second; as chill as he had been since the end of the war, his real out-loud laughter was a rare sound and sight indeed. Though she was happy to say his (by now) characteristic rumbling chuckles were quite frequent-thanks mostly to Toph who was his most favorite person in the world if Katara may make an educated guess. Yes, those two certainly were a pair.
Zuko would make graphically violent jokes or say something to (what she hoped was) purposefully kill a happy mood and Toph would laugh on the verge of hysterics and engage him in a high five.
Toph would make a joke deprecating one of their group and he would appreciate her meanness and insensitivity, or honesty a he called it, while the rest of them would be shocked at her lack of tact or insulted/hurt as the butt of her joke.
She can recall on instance where Zuko made a "joke" that went as follows:
Sokka asks Zuko what he is drinking (clearly it is red wine but Sokka is often one for stupid questions and obliviousness.)
Zuko replies, "I finally managed to pilfer a baby that no would miss to be a special birthday meal and this is just its blood that I managed to salvage as the cook prepared the rest for consumption."
He said this in a frighteningly sincere tone that had them all staring at him with their eyes wide and their mouths quite literally hanging open. No one knew what to say or how to respond to such a horrifying and disturbingly quick improvisation.
Toph, however, found the whole speech quite hilarious and proceeded to laugh most boisterously, after a long period of stunned silence hilariously enough. She could not stand up for laughing so hard for quite some time, but when she finally got a hold of herself, she demanded a fantastically big high-five from her best friend.
Now this was merely one example of their bond through mutual anti-social thinking, sarcasm, and bizarreness; but their need for each other presented itself more and more every day. Who else would find Zuko's droll commentary aimed to vanquish all stupidity and naivety from this world so bloody hilarious and worship-worthy? Who else would back Toph's seemingly mean-spirited jabs with intellectual evidence and clever claims on how sometimes it's actually selfless and kind to let a person know they are embarrassing themselves.
Oh, yes. Those two were very much an excellent foil to the generic personalities of the Water Tribe siblings and the goody-two-shoes throw-rug personality of Aang. Yes, Katara could admit that most times her personality was dull and unoriginal, but she couldn't help it. She had to act as a mother at an early age and damn, but it was a hard habit to kill-If it was even possible. She also knew herself well enough to know that she was the kind of person who would lie until she was blue in the face if it meant protecting another person's feelings.
Aang's participation in this stupidity was hardly a surprise either. He may appear to be fair-minded and idealistic a first, but he still referred to her as "his" girl, and before the defeat of the last Fire lord tried to court her with every insulting cliché in the book. Really, she was a warrior and did not like to need saving—in fact when she did need saving she felt more humiliated and disappointed in herself than she felt swoony over her savior. Did she throw herself wanton at Toph whenever she saved her butt? No, she did not.
She rolled her eyes at her inner thoughts and Zuko, catching it, gave her a small smirk. She felt herself warm when he did it, he always did look so appealing when he smirked. It was one of her most humiliating secrets that she often felt a small yet fierce desire for him.
Whenever Aang acts particularly childish or does something like this "manliness" contest, the difference between them is shockingly highlighted.
Aang preaches of passiveness and spirituality to a point where it becomes close-minded; as opposed to the fair-mindedness the world mistakenly believes the monks to possess. Zuko's morality is uncomfortably true and deeply just. Anything involving hurting people is unforgivable in his eyes, but he knows that often, bad people need to be dealt with in a way that was less than pleasant.
Where Aang is thoughtless and naïve; Zuko is worldly and almost too careful with himself. He over-thought everything; and after having to criticize someone, or when he speaks his mind in sincere passion, he looks at his audience with apprehensive and hopeful eyes. Having Ozai as father would do that to you, Katara thought bitterly.
In addition, Zuko gets along well with herself and Toph more than he did the boys. She supposed that was why he was so popular amongst females. The candid way he speaks to his girlfriend Mai always makes her a bit jealous. When she once mentioned this to Mai, she was surprised that her comment was met with a good-natured scoff from the usually unresponsive girl.
Mai had said it was probably because of Azula's treatment of him that he found it impossible to think of a woman as weak; but that if it made Katara feel better she could believe that it was the influence of Zuko's mother that made him the way he was.
It was the first time she had ever really spoken to Mai at all; and with that conversation she learned that this girl appeared quiet and dark because she was highly intelligent and often bored with the insipidity of those around her. Those were the girl's words exactly and in all honestly she had to find Zuko and whisper the question of what 'insipidity" meant into his ear. He further shocked the poor girl with an uncharacteristic guffaw and commented that she must have been talking to Mai.
She had gained such insight to their quiet and secretive relationship. What everyone once considered two dark people choosing to be together for the sole purpose of being too surly for anyone else became a highly well-functioning partnership between two intelligent people with an almost frighteningly similar aptitude for dry humor.
Honestly, she envied Mai for having such an open-minded boyfriend; nonetheless, she enjoys the company of the girl herself. She enjoys the challenge that was conversing with Mai and she loves to have someone with such quick and intellectual wit on her side when she argued with her smug know-it-all brother.
She was different, too, than her other female friends. Toph always tries so hard to disprove her femininity that she often times will condescend Katara to make herself seem better. Of course, Katara doesn't blame her friend or hold any ill will toward her, but it does get tiresome after a while.
She loves the three of them: Toph, Zuko, and Mai. She loves them even more than her other friends—but secretly and then only a bit. Aang has to travel about taking care of his important (and often unimportant to his chagrin) Avatar business, Sokka and Suki often travel back and forth between the palace and Kyoshi Island. Though Katara is frequently needed to aid Aang on his more difficult adventures, she would more often choose to stay behind in the palace.
The four of them get along well. Even Toph and Mai got on well—on more than one occasion Toph would claim that Mai was her "hero". Sometimes Katara will notice a certain expression on Toph's sightless face as she conversed with Mai. It spoke of an admiration that Katara would bet went beyond friendship or hero-worship. She kept these thoughts to herself as getting it out in the open would do nothing—Mai was positively smitten with Zuko, and the feeling was clearly mutual. It would probably be easier for Toph to get over it if nothing was said; and if she did need to talk about it, Katara knew that (eventually) Toph would seek her out and confess.
Nonetheless, nothing was better than the times when they were all together; and even though her brother was currently being an idiot, she would not trade their time together for anything.