A/N: This is set right after Zuko and Katara come back from their trip to find Yon Rha, so everything before this moment is canon, but I'm changing 'the hug' slightly. Ember Island Players and the finale will obviously be different too. Oh and this is my first fanfic like ever so I would really appreciate it if you guys went easy on me, but give me constructive criticism. Thanks!
The sun was just starting to set as Katara sat out on the pier, overlooking the beautiful, shimmering waters of Ember Island. She looked dejectedly down at the water as she splashed it with her feet. She heard Appa fly overhead and land close by, but didn't bother to look up. Katara closed her eyes and continued to just sit, thinking about things she wished would go away, memories she hated to relive, and the journey she had just taken that had not gone how she planned—whether that was a good or bad thing, she didn't know.
"Katara!" she heard Aang call. His voice, she suddenly noticed, wasn't as high pitched as it used to be. It was becoming deeper, more gravely, like Zuko's. She ignored him, and continued to stare down as her feet splashed the cool ocean waters.
"Are you okay?" Aang asked as Zuko and Aang approached her.
"I'm doing fine," Katara said, harsher than she intended, but didn't turn around.
Aang continued speaking to her back. "Zuko told me what you did…or, what you didn't do I guess. Aang paused. "I'm proud of you."
As Katara answered, she continued to look out at her element. "I wanted to do it," she said sadly and angrily. "I wanted to take out all my anger on him but I couldn't."
Katara closed her eyes shut tight. "I don't know if it's because I'm too weak to do it, or if it's because I'm strong enough not to," she ended quietly.
"You did the right thing," Aang said. He was in his Avatar/monk mode. "Forgiveness is the first step you have to take to begin healing."
As Aang was talking, Katara had stood up. Although Aang was just trying to help, he didn't understand. He never would. He was a peace-loving monk and Avatar and also a 12 year-old boy. He didn't understand the emotions she was going through. Only Zuko, she realized, could completely understand how hurt and upset she was feeling.
"But I didn't forgive him," she said angrily and seriously to Aang. She wanted to make sure that he understood. "I never will," Katara ended as Aang looked at her with shock and disappointment.
Aang saw Katara as this perfect girl, with no faults. That's why he loved her so much. But this new, mature Katara, he felt as if he didn't know. Katara was suddenly growing up so fast while Aang was still in his 12 year-old mindset.
Suddenly, Katara turned her grave eyes away from Aang and her expression softened drastically. Katara looked at Zuko with an expression that both Aang and Zuko had never seen her give him. It was an expression Zuko had hoped for the most, but was terrified would never happen. Acceptance.
"But I am ready to forgive you." It was the most sincere statement Katara had ever given and she was suddenly overwhelmed with emotion: emotion of the past few days with Zuko. He stood by her no matter what happened, through all her craziness and pain, and just accepted her for who she was. He had no perfect image of her like Aang. Zuko knew, better than anyone, that no one was perfect and had a dark side and problems that they had to work through.
How wrong Katara was to think that Zuko had a hidden agenda. Zuko was genuinely trying to be the best man he could be, and Katara was overwhelmed with guilt and shame at her actions, but at the same time, in pride at his own.
Suddenly Katara flung her arms around Zuko's neck and held as tight as she could, trying as hard as she could in that instance to show him her gratitude towards him and her thankfulness that Zuko was there with her.
As soon as Katara came at him, Zuko just as eagerly wrapped his long arms around her waist, resting his head in her soft hair. Both closed their eyes and forgot about the rest of the world, just happy that they were making up.
"I'm so sorry Zuko," Katara managed to squeak out, her voice trembling with emotion. "So, so sorry for everything."
"It's okay, Katara. Everything will be alright. Everything is fine. Don't worry." Zuko's voice was muffled in Katara's hair as he spoke, but Katara still caught every word. If possible, she held on even tighter, just relieved at the understanding in Zuko's voice.
Suddenly, Katara pulled away and looked to the side, refusing to meet Zuko's eyes. "Ugh, sorry. I don't know why I'm crying."
That was when Zuko realized her bright blue eyes were glistening with tears as a few streaked down her face. Zuko was slightly uncomfortable, never good with crying girls as most guys were. Katara could tell and tried to clean herself up by wiping the tears off of her face. But Zuko got there first.
Unsure if what he was doing would make things better, and honestly slightly uncomfortable with the whole situation, Zuko reached out and wiped the tears off of Katara's cheeks. Katara looked up at him with a confused expression at first, but then with a watery smile. Zuko smiled back and dropped his hands back down to his sides after a few seconds of wiping all the tears off her pretty face.
Aang watched the entire interaction between Zuko and Katara, torn between happiness at their obviously innocent and genuine making-up, and a tiny gnawing feeling in the pit of his stomach that wasn't so innocent, jealousy.
Zuko and Katara suddenly seemed to get a hold of themselves as Aang cleared his throat lightly. Katara stared up at Zuko again and smiled as she brought her hand to his shoulder. She lightly grazed her hand down his shoulder, as she walked down the pier to where her brother, Sokka, was waiting with Appa. As she left, Zuko turned and stared at her retreating form with a smile as if he didn't know what had just happened, wasn't complaining.
When Katara got to her brother, she looked back and smiled. Suddenly, however, Sokka lunged at his sister from behind. All that could be heard were snippets of "best little sister ever…", "don't know what you were…", and "didn't hurt Zuko, right?"
Zuko was suddenly broken out of his trance by this and remembered Aang was still on the pier with him.
"You were right about what Katara needed," he said to appease the obviously waiting Avatar. "Violence wasn't the answer."
Aang looked up knowingly at the tall figure beside him. "It never is," he said with certainty in his voice.
Zuko was worried and confused with what Aang had just said, especially when Sozin's Comet was a few weeks away. Aang was still holding onto his naïve attitudes about life. Just because violence wasn't the right answer for Katara, didn't mean that it wasn't the obvious right choice against his father, the Firelord.
Aang noticed Zuko's face turning solemn and serious. "Then I have a question for you. What are you going to do when you face my father?" Zuko asked bluntly.
Aang suddenly straightened up, shocked and unsure. He was not expecting that from him. Zuko, with the look of Aang's firebending sifu, stared down hard at Aang, waiting for an answer.
Aang suddenly felt much younger and smaller compared to Zuko and looked up into Zuko's serious countenance. "I don't know."
"Are we almost there yet? I'm starving!"
Zuko, Katara, Sokka, and Aang were on the latter's flying bison, headed towards the royal family's old beach house. They had agreed to stay there because number one, no one would go there because of the mess Zuko had previously made during his last visit, and number two, because his family hadn't come there, and his father probably hadn't thought of the place, in years.
"Yes Sokka, we're almost there. We've only been flying for 10 minutes anyway," answered Zuko rolling his eyes, but with an amused expression on his face.
Katara and Aang giggled. Zuko didn't expect to, but he really missed Sokka's antics. It really lightened up their serious situation, something that neither Zuko nor Katara were able to do during their 'field trip.'
Suddenly Aang, from atop Appa's head, pulled the reigns and they were out of the cloud bank. Despite the darkness, the island was lit up enough to be able to see the house in the cliff face.
"Wow Zuko. This is just your beach house? It's like 10 times bigger than me and Sokka's house at the South Pole." Zuko watched Katara as she took in the house and beach surrounding it. "It's beautiful," she sighed.
"Yeah, well I guess that's the perks you get for being royalty," responded Zuko.
"We should've gotten a vacation home somewhere, Katara," said Sokka suddenly, with his 'thinking' expression on. "I mean technically we're kinda sorta like royalty because Dad's the chief, right?" Sokka looked up hopefully at Zuko and Katara.
"I don't think it really works like that, Sokka," said Zuko, trying to sympathize with him.
"Yeah, Sokka," interjected Katara. "The South Pole doesn't have a monarchy like the any of the other nations or the North Pole."
Sokka looked dejectedly at the house below, which was quickly becoming bigger and bigger. His logic was trumped and he knew it.
Appa landed on the beach in front of the house and Zuko stood up.
"We have a stable out back," explained Zuko to Aang as he went to sit atop the bison's head. "I'll bring Appa there. We don't want anyone spotting him. Oh, and I'll need you to help me bring some hay from around the side of the house."
"Okay," replied Aang as he jumped off of Appa and landed safely and lightly on the sand by way airbending. The Watertribe siblings climbed down Appa less gracefully and walked up the steps to the front of the huge beach house.
As they stepped through the broken doorway, Katara and Sokka spotted Suki and Toph sitting in the living room on floor cushions.
"Katara!" yelled Toph and Suki as they scrambled up from the cushions and went to greet Katara. "Hey Suk—," said Sokka, his arms wide open and waiting, but Suki scrambled right past him and gave Katara a giant hug. Sokka stood their looking like a lost puppy as he slowly put his arms down.
"Don't be such a big baby," said Toph as she walked past him with a sly grin. "It's only been a few hours since she's seen you."
"Are you okay?" Suki asked Katara in a very sisterly fashion as Toph caught up to them and gave Katara a half hug, half punch.
"Ouch, yes, I'm alright. I'm fine," responded Katara as she thought of the bruise that was sure to appear on her arm the next morning.
"What happened to Sparky?" asked Toph, almost managing to look into Katara's eyes. "You didn't kill him did you?" she asked, smiling.
"No Toph," she sighed. "Zuko," Katara stressed his real name, "is perfectly fine. He and Aang are bringing Appa into the stables and getting him some hay."
Toph noticed that no malice could be heard in Katara's voice as she spoke Zuko's name. "So, did you guys finally kiss and make up? 'Cause, no offense Katara, but you were getting really annoying there," Toph said in her typical blunt fashion.
Katara sighed. "Thanks, Toph. And yes, we're perfectly fine now. I know I was being really childish and stupid and I just want to apologize to all of you for the way I've been acting." Katara was now addressing everyone, not just Toph.
"No problem, Katara," Suki replied genuinely.
"Yeah," agreed Sokka as he managed to sneak his way over to them and put his arm around Suki. "Zuko deserved to get roughed up a bit after everything he did," said Sokka smiling.
"I did?" came a voice from the doorway. Two silhouettes, one tall and one short, could be seen in the doorway. As they walked further into the lit house, it could easily been seen that Zuko and Aang had finished getting Appa settled in.
"Zuko!" jumped Sokka. "I didn't see you guys there! That's not what I meant… I mean what I was really trying to—," Sokka didn't get to finish his sentence as Zuko cracked a slight lopsided smile.
"Sokka, I know what you meant. Don't worry about it," he cut in.
Everyone laughed at that, and the mood became light. As Zuko looked around, he could tell people wanted details, and now. "Um," started Zuko, somewhat uncomfortably, "I know you guys probably want to know the, uh, stuff, that happened the past few days, but, uh, I don't think myself or Katara," he nodded at her, "really wants to have to like explain everything tonight," Zuko finished lamely. "If that's alright with you," Zuko suddenly added with a guilty expression on his face for not discussing it with Katara first.
Katara felt Zuko's unease and wanted to put him out of his misery. She looked up at him and smiled. "Yeah Zuko, that's a good idea."
Katara looked at the rest of the group and added, "We're just really tired and, uh, I think we both need a good night's sleep before we can tell everyone, you know, all the details."
"Yeah," said Zuko, visibly relaxing. "I'll show you guys where you'll be staying I guess."
Zuko gestured for everyone to follow him up the double staircase and into the upstairs hallway. "Sorry if it's really messy," Zuko said sheepishly. "No one's stayed her in a really long time.
"Not a problem," said Toph as she cockily told Zuko to open all the doors.
Zuko did as he was told and waited in the hallway with the rest of the expectant group. Suddenly Toph got into a low stance and pounded her feet lightly. She suddenly straightened up and grinned at everyone. Each group member looked into a room and saw that all of the debris and dust was suddenly gone from the bedrooms.
As per Sokka, he suddenly exclaimed, "I am still SO glad that we added you to our group! No cleaning! Yes!" Sokka hugged Toph and ran to a bedroom.
"I call this one!" Sokka said as Toph stood there blushing slightly.
Toph quickly recovered herself and ran into the next biggest room and shut the door, as did Aang with the third largest bedroom.
"Me and Katara will share this room," said Suki as she entered the room to her right. "It's more than big enough!" she called from inside.
Zuko looked at the room directly across the hall to the left. "I guess that means I get my old bedroom," said Zuko, with a look on his face that Katara couldn't quite read.
"Is something wrong, Zuko?" asked Katara as she stayed out in the hallway.
Zuko looked down at her with a sad smile and said, "It doesn't really matter. I don't want to burden you with my stupid problems," he said quietly.
Katara looked up at him and grabbed his hand, turning him so he faced her entirely. "I burdened you with my stupid problems," Katara replied as Zuko's golden eyes finally met Katara's blue. "Plus," she added as a second, yet just as important thought, "we're friends now Zuko."
At the word friends, Zuko snapped to attention and a small smile graced his features. Katara squeezed his hand encouragingly.
"It's just that this place kinda brings back all the memories of times when my family was, you know," he paused, "actually a family." He looked at their joined hands. "When my mom was still around," he added, the smile disappearing from his face.
Katara too, looked at their clasped hands, not sure how to respond to that. At last she said, "Well, I know that we'll never replace your mother, but you'll make new memories in this house here, with us." She looked up at his handsome scarred face. "With me," she added.
Katara somehow knew exactly what to say to make him feel, although not a lot, better. "Thanks," he said to her as he dropped her hand. "You're really good at this advice stuff," he murmured. "Not like me," he added, "I'm terrible."
Katara smiled, "I'm sure you're not all the bad. You helped me with, uh, all that stuff." Katara clearly didn't want to face what happened the past few days at that instant.
"Yeah, I guess," Zuko replied half-heartedly. "Well goodnight," he said as he walked backwards through his doorway.
"Goodnight," replied Katara as they both closed their doors.