Ok, so this story takes place at the western air temple somtime between the firebending masters and the boiling rock. Zuko new nice attitude seems a little forced to me people don't change their entire personality that fast and with Katara being a bitch he's got to have a lot of bottled up frustration. So heres a situation were they both get a chance to let out all their feelings. Inspired by "Don't Think" by sylvacoer on deviantART.
Words In The Storm
Clouds sped across the night sky blown by the same wind that tossed the tree branches in the forest below. The air was warm and thick, Zuko could feel sweat trickling down his back as he collected firewood, the weather was making him edgy he could almost sense the lightning gathering in the sky. 'Liar,' he thought 'a little storm never made you nervous.' He lifted another thick branch and resisted the urge to scan the shadows around him, knowing he wouldn't see anything in the darkness. He knew Katara had followed him out of the temple, she tried her best but she was no Blue Spirit, sneaking around unheard was something that took a lot of practice. He didn't know why she snuck out after him, at first he had hoped she wanted to talk, more likely she was making sure he wasn't sneaking off to a secret rendezvous with Azula. Straightening with another piece of wood Zuko sighed, he had given her plenty of time to approach him, he couldn't take any more time gathering wood, the storm would break any minute—drenching anything foolish enough to be outside—it was time to head back.
The water whip came unexpectedly out of the darkness and struck him full across the back sending him sprawling as the firewood scattered around him. For a moment he lay stunned on the ground; hearing footsteps behind him he started to get up, trying to smother his outrage 'Why is she doing this?' He got to his feet and started to gather the fallen wood not even looking at her. 'Haven't I proven myself by now!?'
"What are you doing" Katara demanded. He could hear her anger, her frustration, she wanted him to fight back so badly, wanted any excuse to rip him to pieces.
"Getting wood" Zuko kept his voice bland, devoid of any emotion and turned his face away. He hoped she couldn't see how close he was to losing it, how close he was to taking out all his frustrations and anger on her the way she was on him. 'How long is this going to go on?' He moved toward the next piece of wood but Katara blocked his path.
"Don't ignore me." He looked at her; her eyes would have frozen him if not for the knot of fire in his chest. The wind was picking up scattering stay raindrops, thunder rumbled overhead. 'Lightning and Rain; Fire and Water; Sun and Moon; always circling, always fighting, never together' Zuko could almost smile at the absurdity of his thoughts 'I was a fool to think we could be friends.'
"What do you want?" He wondered how he managed to keep the anger out of his voice, could she see it in him the way he saw it in her? Katara looked down but didn't answer; frustrated he turned away toward the temple alert to any attack from behind. One step, two and he heard her move; spinning back around the water caught him across the chest sending him flying several yards. Zuko's control snapped he sprang to his feet and stalked over to Katara small flames escaped his lips.
"I guess you're not the nice little prince everyone sees you as." Katara's eyes flashed with triumph reflecting the lighting that forked across the sky and it cooled his temper some.
"No I'm not," he glared at her "but at least I'm trying." She pushed him and he stumbled backwards.
"You're a liar" she hissed through her teeth "all of you are liars. You'll never change, you don't know how." Katara advanced on Zuko, he backed away. "You won't be happy till the world is nothing but ashes, you're all murderers, you won't stop till everyone is dead." When she tried to shove him again he grabbed her wrists 'Enough running away'. Katara struggled but he didn't let go, finding her eyes once more he saw fear quickly concealed, another flash of lightning split the sky.
"If you think I'm so dangerous you really shouldn't have come out here alone." He whispered gripping her wrists tighter. "But as long as you're here let me ask you something. You think the Fire Nations so evil? Why? You're no different." Katara managed to wrench away, she backed up out of his reach but it was clear she had decided to stay.
"I'm nothing like you" they were circling each other in defensive stances, wanting yet not willing to attack. The wind roared through the forest snatching at their clothes and whipping their hair around with a mind of its own. "I don't murder helpless people, I don't steal people away from their homes, I don't burn down villages, I don't destroy families!"
"Destroy families?" Zuko gave a short fake laugh. "And here I was thinking this was all about me. No, this about your mother, isn't it?"
"Leave her out of this; this is about what your people have done to the world!"
"Fine! You want to know what your people have done!? This is a war Katara, a war! People are dying on both sides, how many families are being destroyed by your people Katara? How many towns have your people destroyed to get rid of the Fire Nation?"
"Stop it! You're the ones who started the killing! We're just defending ourselves."
"We started this war and you're going to end it right? You're going to kill all those soldiers, all those bad people? Is that how it is!"
"If that's what it takes."
"But you're not doing this to stop the war are you. This is personal, for my betrayal, for your father leaving, for your mother. Katara, you don't want justice you want revenge!"
"It's the same thing."
"No it's not, Katara no matter how many people you kill your mother isn't coming back!" There was a shriek that could have been Katara or the wind, Zuko found himself being thrown against a tree as the sky ripped apart with several bolts of lightning. Thunder crashed and they were instantly soaked with the sudden downpour. Several ice daggers flew at Zuko pinning him upright to the tree. Katara grabbed the front of his shirt holding another ice dagger to his chest, her face inches from his.
"Say one more thing about my mother and this is goes straight through your heart." It was her voice—the way she dared him to try it—more than the dagger pressed to his chest that made Zuko swallow his next words, denying her the excuse to end his life. The rain sounded louder in their sudden silence, it beat against them driven by the wind; Zuko's anger wouldn't let him stay silent for more than a few moments.
"Go ahead, do it Katara, end me right now. I hope you have good story to explain away my disappearance I don't think the others will believe I just ran off." Just then she reminded him of Azula when she was younger, hers eyes hard, caring more about getting caught, then killing.
"What do you plan to do then, kill my father to free the world, kill my sister, uncle and me so Sozin's line will end, kill the Fire Nation soldiers for the crime of fighting for their nation and kill the rest of the people in the Fire Nation so their will be no more soldiers?" His rage was growing again, and he wielded his words like his swords, quiet and deadly, waiting for the moment when he could deliver the final strike.
"Shut up" Katara whispered. Zuko ignored her.
"Why should you stop there? What about the Di-Lee or the sandbenders their evil aren't they? Why don't you kill them too, you might as well keep going."
"Shut up" the hand that held the dagger shuddered, the woods lit with lightning.
"How are you going to know when to stop, do just the murders deserve death, what about the people just following orders, the ones who didn't have a choice? Nobody's perfect Katara, in the end you'll just destroy the world. How many people does it take, how many deaths will satisfy your dead mother?" An inhuman scream tore itself from Kataras throat and Zuko gasped as the ice dagger ripped into him. A shudder ran through him and he struggled for breath. The ice daggers holding him to the tree melted and he collapsed to his knees and looked up at Katara. She was backing away slowly horror written all over her face, turning she ran and vanished in the shadows of the trees.
Zuko stayed on his hands and knees in the mud trying to master the pain and avoid collapse. The wind died down, thunder rumbled in the distance, rain was still falling heavily. He managed to lever himself into a sitting position with his back to the tree and look down at the ice dagger; it was sunk deep into his left shoulder. He closed his eyes 'Katara I'm sorry' grabbing the dagger with his right hand he gritted his teeth and wrenched it out. Burning pain washed over him and his left arm went numb. 'I've got to find her, she shouldn't be out there alone, not when she's this upset.' Holding his hand over the wound to stop the blood flow Zuko pushed himself to his feet dizziness swamped him and he grabbed the tree. Leaning his forehead against the tree he concentrated on his breathing till the dizziness passed 'come on, one foot in front of the other' groaning he pushed away from the tree in the direction Katara had gone.
He found her sitting by a stream that wound its way through a small clearing, Katara sat with her legs drawn up to her chest her arms wrapped around her legs and her head buried in her arms. Rain fell silently no longer a punishing force, the storm was moving on. Zuko came into the clearing behind her. "Katara…" She turned in shock; tears were running down her face.
"Zuko?" He stumbled forward barely catching himself before he fell, blood was seeping through his fingers and covered his shirt, his face was pale and drawn with pain. She ran to him and helped him sit, keeping her eyes down. "I thought I killed you."
"I'm sorry," Katara looked at him "I shouldn't have…" his chest burned as he tried to talk "shouldn't have said those things." She looked away and wiped her eyes.
"But you were right."
"No." She pried his hand away from his shoulder, eyes widening when she saw the wound, Zuko gave a half-hearted laugh. "You really skewered me." Katara shook her head.
"You shouldn't have pulled it out; you've lost a lot of blood." Covering her hand with water and reached for his shoulder Zuko jerked backward and she grabbed him.
"Hold still." He held still 'you've seen her heal plenty of times, so this is the first time she's healed you, big deal'. Holding her hand over the wound she closed her eyes, the water started to glow. Zuko held back a gasp as icy needles shot through his shoulder and arm and chest extending to every area of pain and doubling it. He closed his eyes and clenched his teeth holding back any sound; slowly heat seemed to spread from her fingers melting the ice and leaving warmth in their place. As the warmness retreated it took the pain with it until all he could feel was the heat of her hand.
Zuko opened his eyes; he could breathe easily now the pain was gone. Katara had moved back to the edge of the stream she sat with her feet dangling in the stream, he went and sat beside her not touching but close enough that she couldn't deny he was there. They sat there not saying anything for a long time as the rain slowed and stopped, the clouds started to break up scattering patches of moonlight. In the back of his mind Zuko knew the others must be worrying about them by now but he pushed the thought away and let his mind fill with the sound of the stream flowing over the rocks the water dripping off the trees.
"Would you change it if you could?"
"What?" Zuko turned to look at her, she had her face turned toward the sky bathing in the moonlight as others would in the sunlight.
"If you could go back in time and start over, knowing everything you do now, would you do things differently, would you change it?" She expected a quick answer, maybe she wanted one, but Zuko was silent considering. 'Would I change? Join the Avatar in the beginning, save all that wasted time? Or would I try again to bring him to my father? What if I had never spoken out in that council, never been scared, never been banned? What if I had known Mom would leave, could I have stopped her, could I have gone with her? How would thing have turned out, who would I be now?'
"No" he said slowly "I don't think I would." Katara looked at him and he tried to explain. "One of the last things my mother told me was to never forget who I am. Changing the past would change me, who I am, who I've become. Wouldn't that be the same as forgetting who I am, the past is important whether or not we like it there are reasons it happened the way it did."
"Maybe your right, but I still wish it hadn't happened, that the war had never started." She looked at the water "Or maybe I'm just scared; I never thought I'd be the one to end it."
"Aang's the one who's supposed to end the war, Katara, not you."
"You don't know him the way I do!" She yelled, but the anger was gone, pushed aside by a fear concealed for to long. "Zuko he's just a kid, he shouldn't have to save the world, he shouldn't be carrying all our hope. He just wants to be a normal kid, for so long he was able to smile and have fun. Did you know we were on Kyoshi so Aang could ride the elephant coy? Of all the stupid things." She sighed, "We kept dragging him back down, reminding him that he's not normal that he can never be normal. The worst part is he's starting to believe it." Zuko didn't know what to say, he wanted to comfort her but he couldn't deny the truth.
"Am I the only one who sees this realistically?" She looked at him wanting him to understand. "They all talk about stopping the Firelord and then after the fight they think everything will be normal, all easy, all fun. Does Aang know he'll have to kill him, do I even want him to have to do that, I wish I could do it for him spare him that." She was crying again and trying hard not to; forcing the words out between sobs she continued. "Why can't we do this for him? Why does it have to be him?"
"It's his destiny." Katara sniffled and looked away tears dripping off her face.
"Well destiny sucks." For some reason Zuko found this funny.
"I'm glad you agree, my uncle never seemed to understand that fact." Despite herself Katara smiled then instantly sobered again. Zuko grabbed her arm and turned her so she looked at him. "I do understand Katara, this war won't end with one battle, it's something we'll be healing our entire lives. Don't think just because there's no immediate results it's not worth it, you can't give in to despair. I know it's hard, I know it's not fair, but they all look up to you, you're the one who keeps us all going." He smiled at her, the smile that still felt a little strange to him but he wanted her to smile back, he was surprised by just how much he wanted it. He squeezed her hand only then noticing that he held her hand.
"I don't know why, I never asked to be." She shivered and he realized they were both still soaked, she suddenly swayed and leaned her head against his shoulder. "I'm tired." Wondering at his daring Zuko drew her into a tight hug.
"So let me help, you don't have to do all this by yourself. Maybe between the two of us we can hold this little group together."
"KATARA!! ZUKO!!" They both jumped a little guiltily and looked up as Aang flew overhead on his glider searching for them.
"Looks like someone noticed we were missing" Zuko said getting to his feet.
"I forgot to tell them when I left, they must be worried sick." Katara rushed in the direction Aang had flown waving her arms. "Aang! Aang were over here!" Zuko just watched her, all signs of tears were gone, no longer weary, she was the strong leader everyone always saw. 'Don't forget me Katara' as if she had heard him she turned from her conversation with Aang to look at him. For the first time he saw more then a wall of ice behind her eyes. They might not be friends, but in time, Zuko smiled remembering that brief moment of complete trust, who knew what time would bring.
Ugh... didn't really like the way that ended I have a hard time writing anything that even hints a romance, it's so much easier to have them yelling at each other, oh well.
Please review, constructive critisism is appreciated.