Katara brought her feet together and shuffled uncomfortable while looking down shamefully.
"I'm sorry I yelled at you before." she muttered to the fire prince she had spent so long hating.
"It doesn't matter" he brushed it off, was he so used to being treated this way?
Katara searched for words, finding that her own tongue felt heavy in her mouth "It's just that for so long now, whenever I would imagine the face of the enemy, it was your face."
She saw the hurt flas across his amber eyes immediately. "My face. I see" he turned away from her to guard himself, and unconsciously raised a hand to his scar.
"No, no, that's not what I meant!" Katara immediately regretted the words, as soon as she saw his pain. While she had spent so much of their journey blaming the Fire Nation prince for all of their problems, this war was hardly his fault. After all, he could hardly control the conditions he was born under, right?
Zuko saw he discomfort, and pushed his own hurt ego aside, and in a feeble attempt to put her mid at ease, said,"It's ok. I used to think this scar marked me. The mark of the banished prince, cursed to chase the Avatar forever." He sighed, searching for the right words, "But lately, I've realized I'm free to determine my own destiny, even if I'll never be free of my mark."
"Maybe you could be free of it."
He could hardly believe his ears, in fact he wasn't even sure he had heard her correctly. He turns back to her meeting her gentle blue gaze, and he felt his heartbeat uncomfortably in his chest. He told himself it was just the hope of her words. "What do you mean?" he asked.
"I have healing abilities." she felt her own heart rate incease.
"It's a scar. It can't be healed." Zuko muttered trying, witout success to tear his gaze away from hers.
Katara reached under her shirt to pull out water she always kept close. It was the spirit water her own master Pakku had given her on her departure from the North Pole. Her heart now felt like it was in her throat. She could hardly believe she was about to offer this sacred gift to Zuko, after everything they had been through. "This is water from the Spirit Oasis at the North Pole. It has special properties, so I have be saving it for something important."
Without even realizing it she was stepping closer to him. Drawn forward by some unexplainable force.
"I don't know if it would work, but…" she spoke so softly, they were mere inches away now.
His eyelashes lowered accepting her closeness. Further compelled by her need to comfort him, she lifted her hand and gently touched his scar. The skin was warm to the touch, but not nearly as rough as she had expected. She felt electricity tickle her fingertips as she held her had to his face.
His eyes lifted to meet hers, feeling that same energy pulsing where she touched him.
And they stood there, suspended in time. Katara stood with her hand pressed to Zuko's cheek, the dull glow of the green crystals around them glistening in his eyes. She couldn't explain this attraction, and this need to be so close to this man who radiated danger.
Zuko leaned down closer to her. The space between their lips seemed to crackle with electricity. Katara clutched the spirit water in hand, it practically forgotten in proximity to him.
She knew that the second their lips met everything would change, she sighed and closed her eyes.
And that was when the wall came busting in and they both turned, startled to see Aang and Iroh. Katara, still feeling confused, ran to her friend. But she felt the fiery gaze of the prince on her back. The whole way.
Katara felt the sting of his betrayal soon after. She supposed blood really was thicker than water, after all what did he owe her?
It pained her to fight him. But why?
She was soon distracted by Aang's injuries, and they had to make their hasty retreat. As soon as they were on Appa she analyzed just how badly he was injured. It was bad. Azula really hurt him, and she couldn't help but think about how Zuko had hurt her. She shook her head at he own shallownedd, and scolded herself for still thinking about him when her best friend was in such poor shape.
Looking down at her dear friend, she pulled the spirit water out once more. Perhaps it was a sign that he was the one she was giving it to. She moved the water from the vial and ponders it momentarily before setting to work. The water glowed faintly with the energy she put into it, and she lowered it into the wound and used her bending to work it effectively through Aang's body. Katara held him close and began crying. She felt her sobs wracked her body as she tried to comprehend everything that had happened, the weights in her chest, from two different sources, but both from painfully real sources. He gravely injured friend, and the way her heart felt as though it had been snapped in two by Zuko.
For an instant, she was distracted by Aang's arrow glowing. And to her great relief, a second later he groaned signifying to her that at least he was okay. Recovery. Katara gasped and smiled tearfully turning Aang around to look at him. Aang smiled at her and she pulled him to her, grateful that he was still alive.
Cut back to the Earth King's throne room, where Zuko stood beside Azula. His chest felt weighed down by the guilt of the decision he had made. He tried to push those feelings aside, but he just kept thinking back to those crystal clear blue eyes. The faith she had in him for that moment. No one but Uncle had looked at him in a way that deemed him capable of good.
"We've done it Zuko." Azula spoke, drawing him out of his thoughts. "It's taken a hundred years, but the Fire Nation has conquered Ba Sing Se."
" I betrayed Uncle" and Katara, he thought bitterly.
"No, he betrayed you. Zuko, when you return home, father will welcome you as a war hero." Azula spoke, venom cutting her words the way it so often did.
Deep down he knew they didn't betray him. He knew that it wasn't their fault. But he allowed himself to be momentarily lulled by his sister's lies. Iroh and Katara betrayed him.
Thank you for tuning in, this is only the first part of my several chapter Zutara Fanfic. I haven't written in a long while and after rewatching ATLB I felt like I wanted a little side hobby for the summer! The begining chapters will be a lot of behind the scenes that follows the cannon story, just adds to it! I also plan on writing in some ~lemon~ scenes but will have them isolated in their own chapter so if people would rahter follow the story and not get too into that they can just avoid thoes chapters and the reading will still make sense!
Please leave some feed back I love to hear from people, it inspires my writing!
Xoxo - Ash
