NOTE: Have some awkward sappy Zuko! And some fluff! ( o u o )/

Zutara Week 2015 Day 5: Voyage

THE RAIN CAN'T STOP WANDERLUST

There was a downpour of rain. Cold, hard rain. Not having brought an umbrella only meant that they were stuck inside the mall until the rain stopped.

Katara tugged at her boyfriend's hand as they traversed around the crowded building without anything to do. Zuko couldn't do anything but follow. It was his idea to go to the mall in the first place and now they had nothing to do.

"The movie wasn't even worth it," Katara rambled while they passed store after store, "I mean, Love Amongst the Dragons is my favorite book of all time!"

"They always butcher books, Katara." Zuko rolled his eyes at her when she stopped to glare at him. "Come on; if they made a story about our lives they'd do everything wrong to the point where they'd even mispronounce our names."

Katara laughed and Zuko felt a tingle down his spine. Her laugh was one of the things he loved about her.

"Oh, they'd totally get Sokka's name completely wrong," she said.

"And Aang's," he added.

"And your uncle's."

He snorted, she laughed. They then started making up different ways to pronounce the names of all their friends. And that was how their petty little banters usually ended. That was how they were, Zuko and Katara: they balanced each other out like fire and water, like the sun and the moon.

"How is your uncle, anyway? I haven't seen him in a while." Katara took his hand in hers, relishing the roughness of his palms she secretly enjoyed, and they started walking again, with no particular destination in mind.

"Ah, you know. Busy with his tea shop and stuff. He's got a whole new menu."

"That's great! Let's go there!"

"When the rain stops."

Katara groaned, "When the rain stops."

And they carried on just walking around, looking at various sights and sounds in the mall. Katara suggested they actually go shopping and laughed when Zuko groaned in protest. He had enough shopping trips with his evil little sister to put up with and she knew that.

Zuko suggested they go to the arcade in the fourth floor and they spent an hour just playing with the games and stuff it offered. Katara was easily pwning him at every game of Bending Fighter and secretly let him win some of the rounds (she had enough practice with her brother, anyway). They got tired and moved on, the rain never ceasing to fall.

Katara suggested they go to the bookstore at the lower ground floor and they spent an hour looking through books and other merchandise, particularly the Love Amongst the Dragons merch Katara was all over, earning another groan from Zuko (even though he was secretly planning on getting the LAtD themed planner she was eyeing for her birthday). They got bored and moved on. The rain outside seemed to have come down even stronger.

"What. Do. We. Do?" Katara stomped into the mall's atrium where all the other storm refugees gathered for shelter. There was a buzz as hundreds of other people talked simultaneously with the rain. Zuko was right at her heels, smiling softly at his girlfriend's attitude towards their situation. "Why did you even choose the mall, anyway?" she demanded, "It's not going away and we could have visited some other time. Tsk. We could have stayed at my place or something!"

"Well, I didn't know it was gonna rain—" Katara audibly huffed, "—and you said you wanted to go out so I thought why not watch the movie adaptation of your favorite book."

"Which sucked, by the way."

"It did."

Katara moaned in frustration and Zuko chuckled at her. "Well, for the record," he said, "your brother said he needed your house today."

"What? Why?"

Zuko shrugged, "One of his experimentation projects. You know how he gets when he makes up crazy ideas."

"Ugh. I just hope he cleans up after his mess this time."

Katara looked up and saw the glass domed ceiling that the raindrops ceaselessly bombarded. Zuko looked at her and took her hand. She sighed, defeated.

He could feel her frustration with their situation. Katara loved adventure and exploring new places and seeing new sights. She was always so jealous of Zuko, him having seen plenty of the world because of his father's career. This was why he liked taking her out when the weather was nice—which hadn't turned out the way he expected that day.

He smiled as a thought crept into his mind.

"Katara," Katara looked back at him, attention grabbed, "Look at me."

She raised an eyebrow at him but proceeded to do as she was told.

And he looked at her and revelled in everything about her; her smile, her little nuances and habits, her poofy brown hair down the length of her back and cascading down her collarbone to her waist. He liked her in the dress she was wearing, the same dress she wore to his sister's birthday party and the school fair. And the summer festival. And the grand opening of his uncle's shop, the Jasmine Dragon.

It was just Katara to recycle dresses and she didn't mind. In fact, Zuko thought she looked even more beautiful each time.

"What?" she asked when his silence went on for longer than he wanted. Zuko snapped out of it and proceeded to direct her to a different location by just standing there in the middle of the atrium.

"You said you wanted to go somewhere else, right?" He knew he was being incredibly sappy and he knew she was either going to go with it or shoot him down for his utter sappiness, but Zuko thought it wouldn't hurt to try. "We're leaving."

"What?"

"But—hey wait, look at me!—we're leaving but we're staying right here."

She looked at him incredulously. "You're crazy."

"Katara, wait! Just look at me." He took her by the elbow and trapped her in his arms. She rolled her eyes and looked at him. Sighing, Zuko proceeded, hoping his plan was going to work. "You decide where we're going." Carefully and still looking into her eyes, he slowly added, "Now everything is suddenly quiet. Our surroundings fade into white and you decide where we're traveling to." He stopped and waited.

Katara gave him a look that was clearly telling him how weird and awkward he was. For a second, Zuko thought his plan had failed but then Katara smiled at him and opened her mouth. "We're out in an island. It's summer and the sun's about to set and it's . . . it's gold everywhere! The sand, the sky. You could hear the waves crashing against the shore and birds chirping around us."

He smiled back at her, just looking into her eyes, his hands holding her elbows and feeling her hands on his waist.

And he could actually experience the place she was describing. He felt the summer air and heard the birds and the waves. But instead of gold, he saw blue.

"Where are we, Zuko?" she asked almost dreamily.

"We're by the ocean, overlooking the sea."

- o -

NOTE: I really enjoyed writing this one and is my favorite of all the stories I wrote for ZK Week. I had this one finished after writing down Limbo (day 4: Rue). Ed Sheeran's Tenerife Sea is mostly the inspiration huehue. I hope you liked it!