AN: To my fellow Zutarians: welcome, brethren. To those who read this and do not ship Zutara: welcome, friends. First off let me wish you a very happy beginning to Zutara Week 2011. I am very honoured that on your search you have decided to come and visit my little conglomerate.

Yeah, this is going to be the place where I post all my contributions to Zutara Week 2011. I cannot promise you that any of them will be free of clichés, completely grammatically correct, actually stick to the prompt the whole way through, an adequate length, original or basically any good at all. I can, however, promise that every fic will arrive on time and that all your criticisms/suggestions will be taken to heart. This year's bunch was written in a dreadful hurry and I'm sure it shows so please bear with me.

One other thing I can promise is that every review will be answered personally. It may take a while, depending on how evil my teachers are this week, but it will happen. I cannot, however, respond personally to every person who faves and/or alerts this. I simply just don't have the time – I'm so terribly sorry. So I say here: thank you to everybody who faves, alerts, lurks or even reads the title :P And for the reviewers… Well, you should all know by now how addicted a writer is to reviews. I am no exception.

Finally on to the actual prompt for the day. This one gave me a lot of trouble, actually. It probably wouldn't have if my lazy nature and my muse didn't differ so much. I took one look at the word and went, "Oh great! Something to do with the Blue Spirit, then." My muse went, "No." I insisted that it was the easiest thing to do. My muse went, "No." I told my muse that I had six other fics to write in three days before I was bogged down with homework. My muse went, "No." I re-watched The Blue Spirit to get ideas. My muse went, "No." I finally gave in and asked if I should look up the word in the dictionary for more ideas on what to write. My muse said, "Finally. Yes." (And then I sneaked a reference in right at the end anyway, but that doesn't count.)

And this is what happened. Neither me nor my muse is very happy with it but… Yeah. Maybe things will improve tomorrow. Even now the more I look at it the more OCC the two of them seem to be. Which is just infuriating. So sorry for that. I hope you enjoy a little, though. Sorry for the insanely long AN (as usual).

Disclaimer: Avatar: The Last Airbender does not belong to me. Zutara Week is not mine, either. I do own a copy of the Oxford Dictionary that helped me out, though.


Day One: Mask

Mask:

*A disguise or pretence- she let her mask of moderate respectability slip

* Activity that tries to conceal something - no mask could conceal his ignorance; they moved in under a mask of friendship

* Something, often a trait, that disguises or conceals


Suki could not have picked a better time for the long-planned gaang vacation. It was the start of summer and so the weather was fair and warm but not yet overbearing as it usually got in the Fire Nation. They were, once again, on Ember Island staying in the holiday house that now officially belonged to Zuko. And although there had been much deliberation about inviting others it turned out that only the six 'real members' of their little family ended up going. The final decision not to invite others was made after a unanimous decision that too many people would cause stress and trouble – the two main things they were going on vacation to get away from. The last year had been so full of post-war damage control that the six friends had barely seen each other at all and had been dropped in so many irritating situations with over-emotional people that they just wanted to spend a week with the other five people in the world that only drove them moderately up the wall. And, besides, the queries about whom everybody would bring along turned out to be the catalyst for very awkward situations.

Like when they asked Zuko if Mai wanted to bring Ty Lee with her and Zuko only to find that the noblewoman had broken up with Zuko the previous day after a month of heavy arguing. Nobody dared speak her name to the young Firelord – they were happy being alive, thank you.

And so the blissfully lazy week stretched on full of beach days and game nights as well as catching up and sparring. Nobody even suggested going to see the Ember Island Players again – their last encounter was still far too fresh in everybody's minds. But the more time that passed the more familiar they felt with each other and the less polite they felt they had to be. By the second day Toph was already putting things in Sokka's bed, causing a great uproar of laughter and merciless teasing when it was discovered that Suki had found the object and was thus in Sokka's bed. And by day three Zuko and Katara had sunk back into their own strange version of a relationship.

"Uhm…" Suki fidgeted, looking unsure of herself. At times – such as this one – she was rather forcefully reminded that she was, technically, the last one to join the Gaang and was therefore a bit out of the loop when it came to certain things. "I may be wrong but Katara and Zuko don't seem to be… getting along. I thought she'd forgiven him…?"

"Oh she has," Sokka assured her airily, biting hungrily into a peach and spraying juice everywhere. "Vis ish jush ow vey are," he continued, mouth still full.

"Yeah their arguing isn't like normal arguing," Aang told the Kyoshi Warrior with a smile. "It's just the way they've found they can cope with each other. They're actually the best of friends. I mean, Katara went to stay with him when we…"

The young Avatar broke off, looking uncomfortable. Even Toph knew to not comment on his slip-up: Aang and Katara's break-up hadn't been the tidiest of affairs and it had taken them months to become friends again. The vacation was not a time to open barely-closed wounds.

"Neither of them are scared of saying something that will damage the friendship so they say whatever they want when they want," Toph put in wisely, picking at her toes. "Call it brutal honesty, if you want."

"Brutal is about right," Suki murmured, raising her eyebrows as she remembered the row the two had had the previous evening.

Sokka sniggered then draped an arm around her in the casual way of his that left her stomach fluttering. "King Bumi actually put it the best," he said, waving his fruit around knowingly. "He said, 'The two complete each other in both personality and views and their friendship will always be great. But even fifty thousand years after the war is over, fire and water will still fight.'"

"Yeah," Toph snorted. "And then he said something about dissecting cabbages."

"That's not the point," Sokka huffed. "And you know it! The guy may be completely raving but he has his moments. And that was one of them."

"You'll get used to it in a while," Aang told her. "It happens so often you can't help but get used to it."

As if solely to prove his point Katara's voice suddenly exploded from where the two had gone to gather wood.

"Maybe if you listen and STOP YELLING AT ME!" she shrieked.

"I'M NOT YELLING AT TYOU!" Zuko's voice bellowed back

The Gaang all packed up laughing, trying unsuccessfully to muffle the sounds with their hands.

-x-x-x-

But despite the assurance they'd given to Suki the rest of the Gaang also started becoming doubtful of the peace between Zuko and Katara as the days wore on. It seemed that each hour made the atmosphere between the two benders even frostier and nothing anybody said could change anything. Finally it reached the point when neither would talk to the other at all. It was finally decided that some interference was needed, even though the mission of such was incredibly dangerous as the messenger was very likely to incur either of the bender's vicious temper. Toph, it was decided, would be too tempted to egg the two on to an actual physical confrontation and Aang was still slightly uncomfortable around Katara to be of much help. And so the task fell on the slightly unwilling shoulders of Suki and Sokka.

The Kyoshi Warrior decided to tackle Katara when she was at her calmest: while cooking. With all the casual stealth she could manage the brunette girl sauntered over to the cooking pot and ambled around for a while so she didn't look too suspicious. Finally, however, she had to admit that she had no clue how to broach the subject of Zuko. And so, with a sigh, she just dove right in.

"What are you so mad at him for? It's never been this bad."

The Waterbender's back stiffened instantly and her hand curled tighter around the spoon she was using to stir their supper. "He'll never change," she spat back, eyes narrowed and flashing. "Every single time I give him a chance he just… He's just… He only thinks about himself!"

It only took a while for Suki to realize that that half-baked, vague and slightly confusing tirade was all she was going to get. She returned to the others with a shrug. Sokka then bounded over to where Zuko was training and in his usual tactful way barrelled right in.

"So Katara's pretty mad at you this time. Almost spitting fire. What did you do?"

The glare Zuko sent him would have made any other man cower in fear. "I don't have a clue! She just jumped down my throat for no reason and refused to talk to me when I tried to get to the bottom of it. Then she just started accusing me of having ulterior motives and never changing and being here under false pretences. It's like she's possessed!"

"Ahh," Sokka stroked an imaginary beard wisely. "She's doing that thing again when she says one thing but really means another."

"So she's accusing me of being a traitor because she's mad about something else." Zuko's voice and face were flat.

"Women do that," Sokka replied in a knowing voice. "You, my friend, have to figure out what's really bothering her so you can make it right."

"Me? She's the one who-!"

"You have to," Sokka interrupted him loudly, "strip off her mask and delve into the inner workings of her mind. Only there will you find her true feelings and the way to sooth them."

Zuko stared at him with a look that bordered exasperated. "Remind me to never let you and Uncle begin talking about advice giving."

Before Sokka could ask Zuko had whirled around and started marching purposefully towards Katara. Seeing him coming the rest of the Gaang scuttled out of the way, wisely choosing not to get too close to the confrontation.

"They're going to end up killing each other," Toph said, shaking her head. By her tone it was apparent that she couldn't make up her mind if that was an amusing thing or not.

-x-x-x-

Katara heard the Firebender's furious approach and she felt her teeth grit at once. Anger bellowed up in her and the water she was cooking the food in began to ice over. Zuko either didn't see this or he chose to ignore it.

"Spit it out. What is your problem?"

His tone was so much like that of the arrogant prince that Katara had first met that it made it even easier for her to be mad at him.

"Ohhh. Now he's playing the 'innocent' part of his little charade," she mocked, not even turning to face him.

"For Agni's sake!" Zuko roared, the fire flaring up as he fully lost his temper. "What the hell am I supposed to be covering up, Katara? What charade am I supposedly playing? I seem to have been left in the dark about my role in your petty little self-narrated life story!"

Katara whirled to face him so fast she was almost a blur. The two were less than a foot apart and both of them were spitting mad. Katara actually looked like she was on the verge of attacking him. Zuko saw this and he let out a bark of humourless laughter before spreading his arms out mockingly.

"Go on," he sneered. "Attack me. Then you'll finally get what you've wanted all along. The only one who has ulterior motives here is you, Katara." The Waterbender was so enraged by his accusation that all she could do was snarl furiously. "One minute we're talking," Zuko yelled at her, "and everything's fine! And then out of the blue you drag up crap and then decide I'm the scum of the earth again!"

"We were talking, yes!" Katara shrieked at him. "And I thought we were finally fully reconciling old events. But you couldn't give me one good reason why what you did at Ba Sing Se would never happen again!" Zuko jerked back as though he'd been hit. "Not one reason, Zuko! After all this time of me trusting you and telling you things about me and listening to you, you proved once again that you are nothing but an untrustworthy traitor!"

In her voice there was the telltale tremble of coming tears. Zuko fisted his hands above his head and inhaled deeply, seemingly trying to get himself to refrain from attacking her.

"That is bull, Katara. Bull! You suddenly sprung Ba Sing Se" – the word was bitter with guilt in his mouth – "on me and then gave me all of three seconds to answer. And when I didn't you suddenly got it into your head that for the past year I've been using you or whatever the hell else you're trying to spew. You expect me to believe all that? I think you're using that Agni-damned awful excuse to be mad at me. Why, Katara? Why are you always looking for reasons to hate me?"

The fire flared again and the Waterbender flinched away from it, breaking eye contact for the first time. She curled her hands into tight fists at her side and, in her anger and feeling of disadvantage for being the one to look away first, she blurted it all out.

"Because it's easier to be mad at you! It's easier to pretend that I dislike you. It's easier to foster the anger and the frustration because then I can ignore everything else I feel."

Silence descended heavily on the two as they stood and glared, both panting slightly. Unbidden a blush began to rise in Katara's cheeks as she realized what she'd just said. But Zuko was still too frustrated and too wounded by her unjust anger to back down for long.

"And you accuse me of pretending," he spat. "You're the one pretending every day. You're the one wearing the mask, not me. All because… Why? I still don't understand why." Katara stared at him stonily, tears of frustration and anger beginning to well up in her eyes. "You want to know why I won't do Ba Sing Se again?" the Firelord pressed on, fury still raging through his body. "Because they are all my friends. Toph, Aang, Sokka… even Suki. I would never turn my back on them now that I owe them as much as I do."

Katara turned away. "Too little too late, Zuko." Her tone was soft and raw with an emotion that was not anger.

The Firebender all but screamed in frustration as Katara began to cook again. He fisted his hands in his hair and whirled around to go. But after taking three steps his resolve wavered and he spun around again.

"What else do you want me to say, Katara? Huh? What is it you want from me?" His throat was staring to hurt from all the yelling. "Do you want me to say I'm sorry?" He seemed quite content to speak to her back. "Because I am. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'll say it a million more times if that's really what you want."

Katara continued to stir her food, her lips pressed into a tight line. But even underneath the feigned disinterest and the frustration and the deep hurt she knew that Zuko apologising was something huge. A bit of guilt started to stir up in her stomach, conflicting with the anger and betrayal she felt surging through her. The concoction it created tasted so bitter she wanted to burst into tears right there and then.

"What else?" Zuko pressed on irately. "Do you want me to tell you that I regret it? I do. I regret it almost every day. Do you want me to state the obvious that it was a mistake? It was one of the biggest mistakes of my life. Do you want me to promise you again that I've changed? I will. I have. I honestly don't know what else you want from me!" His tone had a tinge of desperation in it now. "What else do you want me to do? Make a blood-oath? Make Toph check to see that I'm not lying?"

Katara's head bowed a little. "I want you," she said in a steely voice, "to stop leading me on. There's your honest truth." She let out a shaky laugh. "That's what I want from you. I want the truth all of the time, Zuko. About everything."

The anger was shocked right out of his system. For a moment his mind was left free falling, trying desperately to clasp on to some meaning or understanding of what she was saying. And then his thoughts seemed to hit the bottom with a jolt that shook everything into place. The red heat that seared across his skin was not because of anger any more. He felt like ramming his head against the wall, crawling into a hole for eternity and then setting himself on fire. Anything to avoid that exact moment. Running his hands down his face with a groan he took a deep breath and faced her back again.

"Katara." All the rage was gone but some of the frustration remained. Why did women have to be so cryptic about it for Agni's sake? Why couldn't she just have asked him the real question she wanted the answer to? "Do you want me to tell you that you're beautiful?" The Waterbender froze at once, shoulders tensing in one jerking motion of shock. "You are. More beautiful than anything or anyone… anywhere. Do you want me to tell you that you're the main reason I'd never… I'd never change sides again? You are. I don't… I don't ever want to hurt you like that again." Still she was silent and he yelled in aggravation again. "For the sake of Agni and his second son, Katara! Do you want me to tell you that I love you?" He laughed bitterly. "I do, alright? I do."

Finally Katara turned towards him, still clutching her spoon and wearing an utterly blank expression on her face. Zuko felt defensiveness rise within him at her apparent rejection, his back straightening and his eyes narrowing as they glared hotly into two pools of calm sapphire. Katara started towards him and he jerked back, lip curling as he prepared to rebuff her with some sneered insult. She reached him before he could and reached up to stroke his unscarred cheek. Her gentle touch surprised him so much he fell silent, the sneer evaporating at once.

"It's easier to pretend to hate you," Katara murmured again, tracing his face with the most peculiar expression on hers. "But then…" A smile so beautiful it made his heart race curved at the corner of her mouth. "No life is worth living if it's too easy."

He stared down at her, mouth dry and hands sweating. How it had come to that point only the spirits knew. One minute they'd been tearing each other's throats out and the next he was declaring his long-hidden love for her and she was talking about not taking life easy. Her smile widened as she saw his confusion.

"Zuko," she laughed.

And that was all it took for his common sense to shatter. Before he knew what he was doing he'd bent down and kissed her, right on the lips in the middle of the place where anybody could see them and while she had a weapon in her hands. But instead of clobbering him she stood on her toes and kissed back. Then she pulled away, gently but firmly, and returned to her pot. The pretence was being played again; the mask was back up. He stood in the wake of the mood swing feeling confused and slightly dazed. She spoke without turning around.

"When we're away from the others again we'll step out of the easy way of doing things." And then, suddenly shy and unsure, she peeked over her shoulder. "We can do that, right? Please?"

He nodded, still too stunned to even smile. "We can do that. But… uh… Katara?" She turned back to him with a question in her eyes. "Could we not pretend to hate each other quite so realistically until then?"

She burst into laughter. "Alright Zuko. Now get out of my kitchen before I freeze you to the roof for the night."

He left with a lot more questions and a greater conviction that girls were insane. But maybe, he mused as he sat by the rest of his family, insane wasn't such a bad thing. And maybe, just maybe, Katara's mask would be as difficult, as painful and as rewarding to get rid of as his Blue Spirit one.