ARC 1: The Promise of Peace
DAY 1: Hidden
The girl he's supposed to marry (one day in many, many years from now) has a talent for getting lost. Zuko doubts that; he has a feeling she likes to hide (and lately, she seems to be showing up wherever he's supposed to be). This time, he finds her in the royal gardens.
She's smaller than Azula, kneeling at the bank of the turtle-duck pond and quacking loudly. Her blue robes are muddy, a white sash half tied and dragging behind her. The Southern princess is five and Zuko wonders how she got away from her nursemaid this time.
"Katara," he says, "Where's your nanny?"
The little girl startles and nearly falls into the pond. He catches her easily (his own little sister used to fall in all the time) and she has the audacity to quack at him. Zuko scowls; he's eight years old as and far too dignified for this.
"Where's Sokka?" he asks, pulling her away from the pond.
"No!" she protests, trying to pull away, "I wanna feed the duck-chickens!"
"They're turtle-ducks," he corrects her, "And you have to have something to feed them with."
He ignores her protesting; the sooner he takes this stupid girl back her stupid nanny, he can get on with avoiding Lala's clingy hugs and trying to find Sokka. Zuko means to get this over as soon as possible, but what he doesn't mean is to pull her so hard that she slips and lands face-first in the grass.
He swears (his nanny would wash his mouth out if she could hear him), pulls her up as quickly as possible. Katara brushes hair out of her face with dirty little hands, sniffing pitifully.
She bursts into tears.
Zuko pales.
"No, don't cry, Katara!" he pleads with her, "Please don't cry!"
"But I want to feed the duck-chickens!"
Her voice grows in volume. Making the Southern princess cry will get him into heaps of trouble. Zuko panics.
"I'll help you feed the turtle-ducks," he says, "If you promise to stop crying!"
Those tears vanish, replaced with a smile and dimpled cheeks. She produces a loaf of bread from a nonexistent pocket.
"I promise!" she says happily.
Zuko sighs. He should have known better.