Author's Note: This fic was written all at once a long time ago, but it wasn't finished, and without an ending we couldn't publish it. Now at last, it has one.
P.S.
Something has gone wrong with the scene breaks, so forgive the apparent sudden changes between locations and time-but it shouldn't be too confusing
Disclaimer: It's their's not ours
The Flowing River
The chamber was dark and empty except for the Fire Lord and his flames. The door opened with a gust of heat and was slammed with a ribbon of blue fire. The Fire Lord opened his eyes. The orange light of his meditation flames danced over the small angled face of a girl, his daughter. She knelt before him. The Fire Lord looked to her right.
"Where is your brother?"
The girl opened her mouth to speak but the door opened then by the force of a hand on the handle. It closed softly by the same force and hurried, padded footsteps announced the arrival of the missing brother.
"You are late Zuko." The Fire Lord said; his tone heavy with disappointment. Zuko knelt beside his sister. "Forgive me father."
Azula looked at him from the corner of her eye. Zuko's hair was wet and dripping. A small smile of cruel delight tugged at her lips. Zuko spotted it from the corner of his eye and his back tensed. Please, Azula, don't say anything! He begged silently.
Today was his lucky day; his sister didn't tell on him. They listened to what their father wanted to say and walked backwards out of the room when he dismissed them. When the doors closed with Azula's ribbon of blue flame once again, she turned to her brother with her cruel smile full force.
Zuko closed his fists. "Thanks for not saying anything."
"Oh I would have if he had asked."
Zuko's jaw tightened. He wouldn't give her the satisfaction of seeing him alarmed. He turned to go, but Azula kept pace with him. "Swimming," she said, as if the word tasted bad, "Maybe if you didn't love splashing in that pond so much you would be a decent fire-bender."
Zuko stopped walking. Azula laughed until she was out of sight.
The warmth of the sun, the thunder of the falling water; the rush of the plunge severed Zuko from it all.
The blue, green tinged water closed around him like an embrace. Here the only sound was the hum of silence and the vibrations of the waterfall above. Zuko swam down and down, out of the glowing water, into the black depths. He liked to come here sometimes, where it was coldest. It was another world. It was refreshing. The cold shocked his system, left him numb and shivering; it actually made living in his world desirable.
Zuko's hands brushed the smooth pebbles at the bottom. He turned and kicked off for the surface, trailing bubbles to relieve his burning lungs. The thick summer air was welcome. He floated on his back as he absorbed the power and heat of the sun.
"You really like this place, don't you Prince Zuko?" Iroh asked, finding his nephew sitting in the sun beside the small lake. The boy looked up at his uncle. "Yeah, I do. There's just something about it," he looked out at the water, and the lush green hills framing it from the sky. "I don't know what it is..."
"Paint it." Iroh said with a shrug that was lost under his girth.
Zuko looked up at his uncle. "Paint it?"
"Sometimes when an artist paints, what comes out on the canvas is not what he sees, but what he feels when he looks at the image…If you are curious to learn what you love about my garden, then paint."
"How is it coming, Prince Zuko?" Iroh asked.
Zuko was in front of a small easel, paint in hand and brush in teeth as he measured the waterfall with a thumb. He sighed. "You were wrong, Uncle. I've painted it and—nothing!"
Iroh studied the painting with his hand on his chin. It was a decent landscape, if he was any judge, but there was something missing… "You must try again."
Zuko groaned. "I'm tired of painting!"
"You can stop for today. Try again tomorrow."
The next day, Zuko thought he would find his answer, but again by the time he finished his painting it didn't feel like he felt. He threw it on the ground and stomped on it. Iroh scratched his head. "It's still early. Try again and then we'll have lunch."
Zuko looked at the canvas. Painting wasn't impossible. It wouldn't beat him. He picked up the canvas, dusted off the back, and started over. Iroh smiled and left him to his work.
An hour later, he returned with a picnic. "Is it coming along?"
Zuko stepped from behind the easel and smiled sheepishly. "I haven't started yet…"
Iroh chuckled only because he could sense that his nephew had already found his answer. Zuko was bursting to say it. "I started to paint it, but that finally made me see…" He turned and looked at the water. "I've been trying to paint at the wrong time of day…I couldn't see it."
"See what, Prince Zuko?"
"The water's fire," he said. "Look at the way the lake hold's the light. The way it dances like a real flame…"
Four Years Later
The flames super heated the air right in front of Katara's face, singeing her eyebrows. Her momentary distraction caused her water whip to miss its target. The crack of cold water on bare skin came before the sharp yowl and a rude curse.
Fire cracked through the sky and then his face was in hers. Anger burned in his eyes as real as the fire in his hands. Though silent, the scar around his left eye seemed to threaten her better than the threat he voiced,
"The next time you hit me will be the last time you ever water bend." He spoke quietly, intensely, and the smell of mint tea was still on his breath. Katara lifted her chin, meeting his fiery gaze with her own ice-cold ones.
"Maybe if you watched where you put your flames, I could watch where I put my water!" She said and then promptly shoved him from her personal space.
"What's that supposed to mean?" He demanded, loudly.
"You keep getting in my way!" She shouted.
"Um, guys?" Aang tried as Zuko exploded into another string of curses, and began relaying all the times her water had ever whipped him, tripped him, made him slip, or gone up his nose. It did happen a lot, but Katara would not stand silently and listen to his crude insults. She spoke over him, maintaining that it was his lack of control that got in her way, inevitably making her get in his way. His flames were always coming too close, burning her, making her dunk for her life.
"Guys stop it! We're friends!" Aang wailed, but his air-bending attempt to separate them failed—once out of each other's reach, they only began throwing water and flames at each other.
The boomerang whirled through the air between the two benders, circling around Zuko and returning to the hand that had thrown it. Once he had they're attention, the water-tribe warrior stepped between them, to shield his sister from the fire prince as much as the fire prince from his sister.
Sokka crossed his arms, "Fighting each other isn't going to stop the fire lord, it just makes him stronger."
"I can't fight beside him!" Katara cried, adding, "I won't."
"Good," Zuko shot back, "You weren't any use anyway!"
"That's enough." Aang said as he stepped in beside his older friend, who added, "Yeah, Zuko, you know Katara is an amazing bender—and you are too." He added to Zuko in an attempt to smooth things over by feeding his ego.
"That's true," Katara said, turning her back on them with her chin in the air, "but fire and water just aren't meant to fight together."
"Finally something we agree on." Zuko said, turning his back, too. Aang and Sokka looked at one another for a moment, lost. Sokka sighed, returned his blade to its sheath and slumped away,
"Just don't kill each other. Please." He said over his shoulder as he went. Aang stood and looked from Katara's back to Zuko's. Both stood in firm resolve, refusing to look at one another or to continue practicing until the other one was gone. Katara's words that fire and water didn't belong on the same side were not setting well with the avatar.
Surely they could, surely they did. An idea came to him, and he hurried away to meditate…
"She said that fire and water can't fight beside each other," Aang explained to Roku, "Can she be right?"
"All things belong in the same circle." He replied. "No two things can ever get too far apart before they are the same again."
Aang frowned, "Huh?"
"Think of it this way: the world is round so if you tried to walk away from me as far as you could go, you would eventually end up right beside me again."
"So you're saying that Fire and Water are not so opposite that they can't be in harmony?"
"That is exactly what I'm saying. In fact, I'm saying that there is a way to make them not opposite at all, but the same."
"How?"
"I call it Dui Bi, the contrast and balance."
"You invented it?"
"Not I, the earth bender before Kyioshi, when he fell in love with his wife, an air bender. If earth and air can be the same, then so can fire and water."
"Please," Aang sank to his knees and lowered his head, "Teach me."
"Aang!" Katara cried as he floated down from Appa's back. "Where have you been?"
"In the spirit world," He replied, "I needed advice from my past lives."
"About what?" Zuko asked. Aang's smile stretched across his face, and he looked from Zuko to Katara and back in a way that made both of them feel uneasy.
"I've found a way to help the two of you get along," he replied.
"We're all getting tired of the two of you complaining about each other." Aang explained, "So I went searching for a solution, and I think I've found one."
"What is it?" Katara asked.
"Dui Bi."
"Dui Bi?" Katara repeated, "I've never heard of it."
"I'm not surprised." Aang replied. "Think about it, it's been a while since opposites were on the same side. Air hasn't been able to fight beside Earth because there are none left, and fire has been water's enemy for longer than anyone can remember. Circumstances prevented anyone from practicing Dui Bi for a hundred years or more."
"So you just came up with this on your own?" Zuko asked.
"Yes." Aang shrugged, "I mean, in another life I did. I created it so that Earth and Air could fight together. Adapting it for Water and Fire isn't hard."
He turned and walked to the center of their makeshift practice yard and everyone followed. Katara and Zuko took the stances of respectful students at the edge of the yard.
"Fire bending uses strong arm and leg movements," Aang demonstrated with a few moves, fire bursting from him in a glorious display. "Water bending is about keeping proper alignment, breath, and visualization." He drew water from a bowl and made it expand over everyone and rain down.
"Dui Bi is a series of moves that allows these two fighting styles to compliment each other." Aang explained, fluidly moving from fire bending to water bending in a series of moves. As he did, he drew near his students,
"Fire is intense and passionate." He said as he passed Zuko in a flurry of flames. He paused in front of Katara, his eyes growing soft as he took in her natural beauty, "Water is quick to adapt and kind." Katara blushed under the complimenting tone in his voice, which had somehow seemed to take on a manly quality.
Aang stopped when his movements brought him back to the center. "Do as I do.' He said. He began moving and they mirrored him. When the movements repeated several times, reinforcing memory, he stopped in the opening stance, "Zuko, you start here."
Zuko matched Aang's stance. The younger boy changed position and ordered Katara to start there. "Now you begin, move through the moves in order. You start together and finish together."
The nature of the moves meant that Zuko would be fire bending with moves that were more like water bending, and Katara would water bend with moves similar to fire. Zuko would always be doing the thing Katara just did, in the same place she just did it, yet she would have moved along already, out of his way.
Though they moved slowly due to inexperience and concentration, both were astonished to find that they could bend their respective elements using almost identical moves and it didn't seem to matter how complicated the move got, they never bumped into each other. Whatever Katara was doing, Zuko was right there, seeming to balance it.
Laughter escaped Katara, "This is amazing, Aang!" She cried as all thoughts of the hopelessness of fighting beside Zuko vanished: with practice, this was going to be easy! Aang smiled, relieved that his plan was working. Sokka dropped a hand on his shoulder, "Good thinking, Aang." He said.
Facing each other, they moved like reflections, flame reflecting water, or water reflecting flame. When he lifted an arm, hers went with it, somehow more gracefully. He stretched out a leg, and hers swept deftly beneath it. When he took a step forward, her foot was already moving backward. Suddenly it was as if they had never gotten in each other's way, they'd never knocked together, tripped, gotten wet or burned. How could they, when they moved so easily together?
His flames surged from his fists and her water was there, surging from her canteen alongside it. He could almost feel her cool liquid against his heat, as if she were the welcome cold side of his pillow at night.
His flames would rip through the air, a roaring, fiery beast, and her water whip would tear from its heart, piping hot and sharp, and slash the target open from head to toe seconds before the flames enveloped it.
Sokka, Aang and Toph would often watch them exercise, cheering them on as their elements, once thought to be so opposite, moved as one deadly force. Toph enjoyed making teetering mounds of dirt for them to demolish. She made the earth dummies pop up all around them, and move like real people.
Lost in concentration, Katara often stared into Zuko's eyes as they worked together. He stared, unseeing, back at her as he made sure to move exactly as the Avatar had said. Soon they knew the moves so well that they needn't concentrate as they ran through them and then he began to realize that her eyes weren't always icy and blank, like when she was angry.
He finally placed them as exactly like a deep, calm lake resting in the shade. Mystery lay in their depths, impenetrable by light. Power was there, too; the power to carve valleys, wear away rock, to survive losing a mother…
A sharp blade of water sliced through the air between them, whirled around both as it picked up momentum and then hurled itself at the target. Zuko's eyes went wide—that hadn't been part of the Dui Bi teaching, she was deviating, adding to it.
Toph crossed her arms, "Well, it looks like water-bending can be as intense and passionate as fire. Way to go, Katara!"
She blushed, "Thanks, Toph."
Zuko looked away from the demolished earthen target, back at his partner. Kartara grinned, raised an eyebrow. Silently agreeing, they repeated that move of the exercise, but this time, Zuko made his fire into a rope, which raced ahead of the water blade and wrapped around the target, holding it in place as the water cleaved it in two.
Zuko stopped, panting and staring at their joined destruction. When he looked at her, she noticed that the light in his eyes, so often flickering like the flames he wielded, was more playful than daunting.
"You want to see what else we can improve?" He asked. She nodded.
Laughter bubbled out of Toph and she cracked her knuckles, "Let's do this." She said as Zuko and Katara took the beginning stance of Dui Bi.
Zuko smiled as he held Katara's gaze, raised his eyebrows. She raised hers as well, accepting the challenge. The first several stages of the exercise featured no bending; these steps were meant to loosen the two benders, and allow them to recognize each other's bending presence. Katara noticed during these first few moves that Zuko's bending presence was, for want of a better word, exhilarating.
His every move was done with a level of intensity that never wavered. When the heat of his flames wrapped around the watery extension of her arms, her spine tingled from the thrill of the flames licking their surface, like a hundred hot butterfly wings fluttering across the surface of a pond. His fire bending made the air around him almost crackle with concentrated energy. That energy refreshed Katara, enlivened her; she could almost imagine that his flames were putting bubbles in her water, stimulating it, and making it as lively and playful as fire.
The first bending move came and along with it, a massive column of dirt raced toward them. His fire cracked out of his fist and slammed into the dirt pillar, as usual, but his other hand came above his head and a whip of fire shattered the biggest piece of the rumble as it fell. Impressed, Katara answered with a move of her own, first enveloping another approaching target in water, and then freezing it solid.
They continued, adding a water-whip here, a surge of fire there, and the whole time, neither one ever felt the pain of the other's element. Often his firework made her gasp, or her water work made him exclaim in cheer. Every time one of their targets exploded beneath their joined power, the next move seemed to pack more force.
When the exercise came to an end, it was to see the last target in the practice yard explode in shards of ice under the awesome power of a bolt of lightening, which streamed right out of Zuko's fingers.
Katara yelped, having never been so near lightening before, the sizzles in the air made all the little hairs on her arms stand on end.
Zuko's skin was glistening with sweat, his breath seemed to tear out of his nostrils quicker than he could pull it in, and little strands of his hair, lose from its tie, was lifting into the air of their own accord from the excess energy of the lightening. He was staring, with wide-eyes and a mixture of fascination and horror, at the bits of ice lying around them, pulverized by his power.
"Wow." Katara said when she'd caught her breath.
Zuko looked at her, "I didn't know I could do that." He admitted.
"I was wrong." Katara said. When Zuko looked puzzled, she explained, "We're good together."
The corner of Zuko's mouth went up, his cheeks tinted with red and Katara heard her own words in a different way,
"I mean—you know, we fight well together," She explained and he laughed,
"We do." He agreed.
"Do me a favor, Zuko." Toph said loudly as she made the mound of dirt she stood on roll towards them, "Don't ever throw lightening in my direction again!"
"I'm sorry!" Zuko balked. He ad completely forgotten about tough little Toph, "Did I hurt you?"
"Not that time." Toph replied drily. Her eerily blank eyes seemed to peer right through him. Zuko smoothed his hair back, forcing a light chuckle. As he did, he noticed the rank smell emitting from his pits, and how drained he felt from the lightening.
"I'm going to call it quits for the day." He said, strolling backwards toward the river water, "Katara, thanks for the…" He had no idea what he was saying and finished lamely, "today." He made hand gestures to imply that he meant Dui Bi and all they'd accomplished together.
"What was that?" Toph asked.
"What?" Katara asked. When Toph didn't say anything, Katara shrugged and headed toward the sky bison to feed him. Toph remained where she was, staring after the vibrations of Katara, lost in thought.
Sokka approached, "Hey," he said, "What's going on?"
"I'm not sure yet." Toph replied, and then turned to head for the tree line, to collect firewood. Sokka frowned after his friend then looked at his sister, then Aang, who was putting up the tents, and finally Zuko, who was in the river. He harrumphed, deciding that if it was any of his business, someone would let him know.
That night, Zuko dreamed of Katara. She was standing at the edge of a pond and she was water bending. With fluid movements of her wrists, she made the water go like the waves of the oceans. She worked steadily, pulling the water toward her and then releasing it, pulling it, releasing it, pulling it, releasing it…
Zuko was the water.
She had complete control of him. He moved toward her and then rolled away. There was nothing to do to stop it. Nothing he wanted to do. She was his master and it felt natural. There was a word for this feeling; surrender.
Zuko woke violently.
He was relieved to find he was lying on his mat on the ground beside the dying fire, and that he had control of his body. He sat up, looked around the camp. Everyone was asleep. Aang and Sokka were on either side of him, circling the fire. Katara was curled on her mat on the other side of it, and behind her Toph was in her earth tent a few paces away from the group.
The light of the smoldering embers made Katara's serene face seem to dance in the shadows of her flowing hair. Something stirred deep in his memory.
Uncle's garden pond, the one with the waterfall, the time Uncle told him to paint it to find its beauty. The way the water held the glow of fire had been the thing to captivate him, to suspend him in awe. If ever he thought about it, that pond in the dying light of the sun was the most beautiful thing in the world.
Zuko couldn't breathe when he saw a living Water's Fire sleeping across from him now. She was dazzling in the light of fire, holding the orange glow as her own. Zuko felt something in his chest melt a little—the sensation was as out of place as the one from his dream. Melting implied ice; water, and there certainly wasn't anything like water in his chest, he told himself firmly.
He quickly flexed his finger and killed the fire completely. Darkness settled around him like a blanket, but its blank canvass wasn't enough to keep his attention from drifting back to the image of Katara at the lake's shore, bending his soul…
With a roaring flare, a full sized fire erupted in the pit, burning big and brightly enough to block Zuko's view of that side of the camp completely. It disturbed Sokka, who rolled away from the heat with a grunt, and Aang who drew a deep breath and released it with enough force to move the fire an inch or two away from him, back toward Sokka, who grunted again and rolled further away, mumbling something to Suki.
The next morning, Katara couldn't wait to practice fighting beside fire again. She walked around the camp sight, waiting for Zuko to wake up—it must have taken a lot out of him. He had been the first to go to sleep and now the last to wake up. She considered shaking him awake, but didn't. He needed rest. She wanted him to be at the top of his game for their next session.
"I'll practice the Dui Bi with you Katara." Aang said with a shrug when she admitted that she as waiting for Zuko to wake up before starting her exercises. This notion stopped Katara in her tracks. "Hey, you can!" She said. She had somehow forgotten that there were two fire-benders present. "Okay!"
She took her beginning stance, and Aang took his. She started, sweeping her arms through the air as if she were the fire-bender, though she bent water instead. Aang followed in her footsteps, moving his hands like a water bender and actually bending water as he went, since he was capable it. Katara smiled at him as they went through the warm up section, the part designed to loosen their muscles and get them accustomed to each other's presence.
It was completely different than what it had been the day before. Katara had been expecting the exhilarating presence of fire, to feel it crackling and popping beside her as if she fought within a furnace of raw energy. Today she felt none of that. Aang's presence she did feel—the smooth, cosmic power that glowed like a star; distant and cold but bright enough to make itself known. It made her understand something she had never considered before: fire-benders were all different. Aang's fire was a tamed thing. Zuko's was wild.
She wanted to fight with the wild one.
When Katara reached the bending steps, she moved first in her traditional water-bending style, flinging water up and letting it rain down as stinging sleet. Behind her, Aang mirrored the exact move, but flung fire up instead. It streaked down like a thousand little meteors. None of it burnt her because she had performed another move, this time moving her arms and legs as if she was a fire-bender again, which formed a globe of cold water around her that protected her from the falling fire.
"Good job, Katara!" He said, complimenting the difficult move. She smiled. "Thanks Aang."
He copied her movements exactly and two rings of fire spun away from him, merging with her globe and boiling the water. Together, they sent it careening into the earth dummies that Toph was sending in their direction. When it dissipated, there was nothing but smoking mud left behind. Sokka clapped.
Zuko woke from a dead, thankfully dreamless sleep to find that the sun was all the way up and that every one else in the camp was up and busy. He sat up, feeling embarrassed that he slept in so late while everyone else had so much work to do. He found them in the practice yard, of course.
Toph had cut this practice yard into the side of a mountain, meaning that one side of the yard had an earthen wall. Sokka was perched on the top, looking down at his sister and the Avatar. He wasn't actually watching, but deeply lost in maps and planning with Suki.
Toph stood beside the warriors, earth bending Aang and Katara's targets into life with maniacal laughter each time one was destroyed. Zuko was surprised to see that Katara was practicing Dui Bi with Aang. His surprise was strange. He had no idea why this should bother him at all.
Zuko didn't drop down beside Sokka, but remained standing off to the side, at a distance; the only way he was comfortable. He didn't feel like a part of their family.
Watching Dui Bi from the outside was a very different experience than being part of it. From here he could see the exercise as a whole, and the full destruction of the bending. It was impressive. He didn't doubt that it would be terrifying to see an enemy move like this. He wondered if this was how he and Katara had looked the day before.
Then he realized that what he was seeing was the combined work of a naturally talented water bender and the Avatar. Of course it hadn't looked like this when he'd done it. He felt jealous when he saw the full force of Aang's fire-bending. He would never be that powerful, that in control of the fire. When Aang fire-bent, it was as if every lick of the flame was deliberate, on purposed, ordered. There was nothing the fire did that Aang didn't want it to do.
Suddenly, fire exploded out of the arena, engulfing it, shooting hundreds of feet up in the air. Sokka, Suki, and Toph flinched away covering their faces to shield the heat. When the flames receded, Aang and Katara were frozen in the final pose of Dui Bi. The earth all around was jet black and smoldering. Her water surrounded them. It had protected them from the inferno Aang had just created. There was even a perfect ring of grass left, the bit of ground they stood on as her water gracefully flowed back into her canteen.
Sokka stood and clapped. "You taught him well, Zuko," he said. Zuko was pulled out of the sea of envy he'd sunk into. Aang turned to him and pressed his fist into his palm, "Thank you, Sifu Zuko." He said.
That's right. Zuko had taught Aang fire-bending. This was partly his doing as well. Pride filled his chest, but he waved a hand, "The dragons taught you true bending. I just taught you how to punch."
Everyone laughed and Katara waved him down. "Come practice with me."
"Yeah, do lightening again!" Sokka said.
Zuko shook his head, "You keep practicing with Aang. I'll run through some exercises on my own."
He hadn't wanted to stop fighting with her, but he knew better than to indulge himself. He had to focus on achieving his role in ending the war; and until that happened, he couldn't get distracted.
Just that morning, all of the fire-nation had gathered to see the coronation of Fire-Lord Zuko. His speech promising a new era, where fire worked in harmony with the rest of the elements to rebuild the world, was touching and gave plenty for people to talk about as they dispersed. After an entertaining tea, where Sokka tried to capture the moment with a pathetic drawing, it was time to go home, at last.
They were packing Appa for the journey back to the South Pole. Suki was coming in order to marry Sokka before the Elders of the Tribe. Toph was coming because she had no where else to go; she and Aang were already making plans to visit other places after the South Pole.
Toph and Suki were excited; they'd never been to a world of ice before. Katara and Sokka were laughing and trying to explain how there wasn't anything to see.
"Do you think the Elders will like me?" Suki asked nervously. Sokka laughed and planted a light kiss on her cheek. "Of course they will."
"They'll like you better than they like Sokka, that's for sure." Katara said, evoking a strong belly laugh from everyone except Sokka, who rolled his eyes. "I'm sure they've forgotten that by now." He said.
Katara shrugged. Suki traded an intrigued look with Aang, and Toph likewise looked interested to hear what had happened, but neither Sokka nor Katara divulged the secret. Aang shrugged it off and continued packing the food they would need for a straight shot to the South Pole. This was something the avatar had noticed early on about the two water tribe members; they often spoke of something from their tribe that they both knew a great deal about, but never did they offer the story to the rest of them.
Once when Toph had asked to hear more details, Sokka had shrugged the matter away and cracked a joke about water tribe confidentially privilege. After that the brother and sister seemed to speak less of things like that, provoking less questions from the rest of them; but Aang had continued to observe them and found that they both seemed to know everything that had happened to the other. They had no secrets between them. Not even private things like kisses. Sokka knew about every kiss Aang had given Katara—and had let Aang know it with meaningful glances—and Katara was the only one not surprised by Sokka's actions during Yue's departure, or Suki's return.
"I can't wait to see if I can see anything on the ice and snow-covered ground." Toph said.
"I can't wait to marry you," Sokka said to Suki, rubbing noses wit her. The couple had become sickeningly lovey-dovey since the end of the war. Katara rolled her eyes with her friends. She was happy that her brother had found love, but she didn't appreciate him showing it off, rubbing it in her face.
The regal shadow of a fire-lord fell across them.
"Hey Zuko!" Aang said happily. "We're just about ready to leave. Are you sure you can't spare a week or two for the trip? It'll be fun."
Zuko smiled. "I wish I could, but I have a lot to do here."
"You'll be a great Fire-Lord, Zuko." Katara said. Zuko smiled, blushing slightly. "Thanks. I—I actually wanted to talk to you," Zuko said to Katara.
"About what?" she asked, stepping aside with him. He laughed but didn't answer straight off. They walked around the building, to the garden there.
"You look better," Katara said to break the ice. It was true; she had only been able to revive him after the lightening, professional healers had taken it from there. Zuko's natural pale color was back, flushing red every time he didn't say what he was thinking. Right now, a rosy blush was crawling up his face.
"Thanks," he said, diverted. Katara felt that her ice breaker turned out to be rather counterproductive. Whatever Zuko had been preparing to say was further from the surface than ever now. Katara decided to just talk until he was comfortable enough to say what he needed to say.
"I want to thank you again for stopping that lightening from hitting me," she said.
"It was nothing—I had to do it."
"Because we are friends, right?" she asked. Her heart thumped a little faster at the direct question, but she wanted to hear it from his mouth. If he cared for her at all, she needed to know before she left…
"Friends?" he said, his tone hinting that it was a question. "Yeah, friends; we're friends. Actually, I think you are my best friend—not counting Uncle anyway."
Katara stopped walking. "Me?" she asked. She could hardly find the nerve to talk to him about idle things yet she was his closest friend? The thought broke her heart a little, because she knew it was true. Sokka trusted him, but that didn't mean he had to like him or talk to him at all. Aang liked everybody, but Zuko tended to avoid the avatar's happy-go-lucky attitude whenever he could, and Toph was always with Aang. That did leave Katara as the only one to hang out with Zuko. She'd never realized.
"Yeah, you," Zuko said with a rare smile on his face. "Is that so hard to believe?"
Katara shook her head. "No, actually…I've just never thought of it like that."
Zuko laughed and shrugged. "Well when you get hit by lightening a lot of things become clear. I know that I have it in me to always do what is right. I know that I have some real friends in this world; and I know that," he paused. Then his words came in kind of a rush. "I know I love you."
Katara was so shocked she couldn't even form words.
"I mean, I know I've liked you for a long time now, but when I saw Azula send that lightening your way, I suddenly knew that it wasn't just a crush. If I lost your friendship, I don't know what I would do, and, well…isn't that what love is? I can't live without you Katara."
"Wait, just—wait." Katara said. She found a seat on a boulder among some fire-lilies. Zuko stayed planted where he stood, pale horror slowly crawling up his face. Katara spoke before he could get the wrong idea.
"Zuko, you've no idea—" Her voice caught. She started over. "I've liked you for a long time too, but I was afraid."
"You have?" he asked, lighting up like a lantern. He came to her, knelt before her. "I was hoping."
"Zuko," Katara said weakly. "I don't know what to say…"
"You don't have to say anything."
"When I saw you take that bolt for me, it was like my wildest dreams had come true. I didn't even know I wanted you until I thought I could never have you…"
"Katara," he said softly. He lifted her dark hand to his pale lips and pressed a warm kiss against her knuckles. Butterflies filled her. She bit her lip. His golden brown eyes looked soft and hard at the same time, two different emotions crashing behind them; love and courage. Katara understood then how difficult it was for him to show his emotions like this. He expected her to hurt him any second; it was all he knew out of life.
She caressed his face, traced a line in his scar with her thumb. He closed his eyes, his breath leaving his body with a light shudder. She smiled. "Who would have thought it? Water and Fire…"
He smiled too and shook his head, his hands dropping to her knees. "It sounds so crazy."
"It feels a little crazy." Katara admitted. "Like a jump no one thinks you can make."
"Until you do and prove them wrong," Zuko said. She smiled. She couldn't concentrate on anything beyond his hands and the warmth they were spreading up her legs from where they were on her knees under her hands.
"…so let's do it." Zuko said, "Let's prove them wrong."
Katara nodded, her eyes shining. Zuko raised high enough to land a kiss on her mouth and then lifted her to her feet by the elbows in order to kiss her more deeply. Katara felt something in her chest spark. For the first time in her life, she wasn't trapped in her head worrying about doing the right thing, because she didn't have to worry about this, she knew; she could feel it; this was right. The longer the kiss went on the more the spark grew until it was a roaring wild fire spreading out of sight, burning her old thoughts to the ground.
Zuko broke the kiss, panting slightly. It had stolen his breath. His arms were bracing her back, holding her up; her arms were wrapped around his neck, her knees weak. Their bodies were pressed against each other completely. He leaned his forehead against hers, the tip of his sharp nose bumping against her button one.
His kiss had tasted like tea. Hers like a piece of fire peppermint candy from one of the venders in the town square. Now they both enjoyed the taste of peppermint tea. The strength in Katara's legs slowly returned and she stood. Zuko released his hold and allowed his hands to move down her waist. They rested on her hips. She caressed both sides on his face.
"It feels so strange, doesn't it?" she asked with a giddy laugh, "Not having a world to save?"
He laughed. "The world will always need saving." He said, repeating something Uncle Iroh had told him just the other day, "The day we stop trying to save it is the day it's lost. But it is nice not to have a ticking clock for a change."
Katara smiled. "Exactly; we have all the time we need."
Zuko nodded without breaking the contact between their foreheads. Then he took a deep breath and released it into her hair. "I wish I could spend all day with you and forget my duties as Fire Lord."
Katara smiled into his shoulder. "Don't say that because of me. I'm not worth it."
"Of course you are." Zuko said. His lips left butterfly kisses along her jaw to her lips.
Katara broke the kiss when she heard her brother call for her. An irrational fear closed around her stomach—the tantalizing child's instinct to run and hide before getting caught doing something naughty. Katara pulled out of Zuko's hold and bid him silently to stay where he was. Zuko obeyed when he heard Sokka call a second time, this time with frustration in his voice.
Zuko laughed, his heart suddenly racing at the thought of being caught by her brother. Katara laughed too, giddy with the idea of having a secret like this. It felt so liberating. She could fly away with the power of keeping a secret like Zuko.
"Katara, seriously, where are you? The whole team's waiting for you!" Sokka cried, rounding the corner.
Her brother was surprised to find her there, within earshot after all. He stopped and looked between the pair suspiciously. Katara played it cool, as if they had only been talking about the weather they would hit on the journey. Zuko's usual mask of stoic boredom fell right back into place, but because she knew it was there, Katara could see a glimmer in his eyes.
Sokka shrugged away the suspicion and asked lightly, "Saying goodbye? Time to go, Katara."
Katara didn't answer. Her dark blue eyes widened as they flew to Zuko. She didn't want to leave, but she couldn't object and keep her secret too. Zuko remained completely passively; he might have mastered the habit of showing his feelings to Katara, but he would need a lot more practice before he put himself out there with anyone else present. Katara found herself with the reigns; she could do as she wanted.
She wanted Zuko.
She wanted home.
She wanted a secret to keep as her own.
Katara nodded. "Coming—I want to say goodbye to Iroh first."
Sokka nodded and with a final wave to the new Fire Lord, he disappeared back around the corner. Katara returned to Zuko for one final kiss. "Say goodbye to your uncle for me."
He grinned, but a question burned in his eyes. She bumped her nose against his, her lips brushing a hairs breath from his mouth in a teasing manner. "What it is?"
Zuko swallowed; his Adams Apple bobbing. One side of his mouth lifted in a shy smile. "You could stay here." He suggested. Katara blinked. She could. Her heart began pounding. She could stay. When she looked into his golden brown gaze she saw again that hard light of courage burning there and it gave her courage—courage to ask herself What If.
What if she did stay?
She would be with Zuko. They would see each other everyday and he would talk to her like he could talk to no one else and he would kiss her and he would make her laugh. They would get married; have children. She would Lady Katara, Fire Lord Zuko's wife.
Fire Lord Zuko's wife.
The courage fizzled and died like a match head. Katara's heart began racing in a new way, fueled by a fear that struck as suddenly as a snake. She couldn't marry a Fire Lord; she couldn't become co-responsible for running an entire nation. Her children wouldn't be just children, they would be heirs.
"I can't," she said breathlessly; somehow the fear had stolen that too. She could hardly breathe imagining the life behind palace walls. Trapped. She shook her head and moved away from Zuko, who stood in shock.
"Why not?" he asked, "I thought you wanted to be with me; I can't go to the South Pole."
"I—I know," Katara said. "I wasn't thinking—I can't do this, Zuko."
The full scale of what she was saying finally hit him. His face crumpled like a paper swan. His scar crinkled as it did in the old days, when he used to look at her and her friends in anger and hatred, but his golden brown eyes weren't loathing—the courageous glint was gone. There was only shadow and humiliation: hurt.
Katara saw it all in his face. He had trusted her with his feelings and she had proved to be as unfeeling as the rest of the people in his world. She didn't see his eyes grow cold for the blur of tears that welled in her own.
"I'm so sorry!" She said, going to him. He stepped away. She stopped, stung. She crossed her arms, sniffed. "Zuko—"
"No." He said darkly. "You're right. I shouldn't have asked."
With a sweep of his Fire Lord robe, he was gone. She stood alone in the courtyard garden. A hot tear dripped from her jaw and landed with a splash on the flagstone under her feet. Katara looked at the dark stain beside her toe. It was shaped like a tiny sun. She dragged the toe of her shoe through it. It became a comet. Three more suns splashed into place beside it.
"Katara!" Toph called. The earth bender had pitched her voice just loud enough to reach the water bender where she stood. Toph knew Katara was there, she could sense the vibrations even from her tear drops. Katara reigned in her tears and answered in as steady a voice as she could. "Coming."
"Are you okay?" Toph asked when Katara met the girl on the walk. Katara knew better than to lie to Toph about this. She sniffed. "I'm just so happy to be going home." She said. "For it to be over, you know?"
Toph smiled. "Me too. I've had enough excitement for a while. You promise the South Pole is boring?"
"Oh, totally," Katara said. "And dry too. The air is too cold to hold moisture; it freezes everything instantly. It's so cold you don't even feel the cold."
"Cool." Toph said. Katara sniffed, dried her face, and put on a smile before she faced her brother. When Sokka looked her in the eye as they departed, Katara feared for a moment that he knew she wasn't telling something, but he never asked, or orchestrated an opportunity for them to be alone together for her to spill the beans. It took several days, nearly a full week, before Katara could rest easily in the knowledge that Sokka really didn't know she was hiding something from him.
It felt wrong. It felt like cheating. Part of the tribe's community was their common well of knowledge; everyone knew everyone else's business not for gossip topics but simply to share in all that was life. Until Prince Zuko joined their cause, Katara had never been in love, but she had never felt the difference, because she had grown up on stories of the older girls in the village finding soul mates in the fine warriors going off to battle. Katara knew love backwards and forwards, and could see it coming from a mile away because there was a story for each way of love back home, but somehow this had taken her by surprise; maybe because she'd never heard a story about a fire love.
She wanted to share this with Sokka, but she loved the freedom of the secret as well. She met herself half-way; if Sokka asked, she would tell.
Sokka was so wrapped up in Suki that he didn't even know the days of the week anymore.
Zuko was still her secret to keep.
AN: Leave a review before you go on to the next section please, even if it's just pointing out a typo
