Summary: "Like waves washing away the footprints on the sand, Ember Island gives everyone a clean slate. Ember Island reveals the true you." Zuko didn't know what that line meant, until he met a certain waterbender who was willing to listen.
Disclaimer: still own nobody who I write about. Been doing this business for over a year, and what do I have to show for it? Lovely readers and reviews who continue to put up with my stupid-ness. That's what. It's all a writer could ask for, and I want to thank everyone in advance for clicking on this story and I hope you enjoy. If it was for you all, I probably wouldn't be on this site as much.
A/N: Takes place right after the Southern Raiders incident, but before Aang and the others all get on Ember Island. So somewhere in that commercial break during the last five minutes. This one is a little more serious than some of my others. Haven't written much in a while and after watching "Southern Raiders" a couple weeks ago, to the point to where I've been working on this fanfic for a week and still have the entire episode in my head, I decided it was time I jumped on board and did one of the most over used themes in the Zutara world. Ember Island.
I don't know what all went on in those catacombs, be it they intensely glared at one another or figured that if they were going to die down there, they might as well not be virgins when they die, I don't know. Maybe I'll write a fic one day about my take, but for now it is a mystery. This isn't about what exactly happened when the two were locked up together; this fic is about Katara finally understanding where Zuko came from and what lead him down the path to where he is now. Hope you enjoy.
Ember Island was beautiful. Its beaches stretching as far as her eyes could see, the reddening sky expanding out past the horizon, animals that she had never seen before dotting the setting sky, or jumping from the shimmering waters. It was all so beautiful and any other time she would have wanted nothing more than to sit and watch the scene before her and just bask in it. But in spite of the beautiful area, the sounds of the rushing water beneath the deck she was sitting on, Katara's focus was locked on the firebender beside her. The firebender she had spent so long hating and fearing; the firebender who had made her life miserable for months; the one who had joined them, and even with all the good and help he did, she still had refused to except the fact that he had changed. But she couldn't push off emitting it any longer. As infuriating, aggravating, annoying and just plain out argumentative the firebender was, no matter how much he pushed her buttons with just a word, Katara was starting to accept this idea of friendship he was offering. It wasn't any kind of special thing, just a friendship. A friendship where neither party felt the need to lash out, yell, snap at, or watch the other causally. It was something new for them, but not something completely unwelcomed.
In all honesty, Katara was tired of holding so much anger towards him. It took too much energy and time for her to constantly belittle, or instigate something with him. She was tired of making sure his part of dinner was always slightly burnt. Tired of wishing her glares would make him burst into flames. Tired of trying to find the best way to push him off of the temple ledge, or just any large cliff side, without the others thinking it was her fault he fell. She was tired of being angry at him.
This didn't just mean she was going to up and forgive him though. A four day trip together does not make up for everything he did previously. Sure, he'd been nothing but helpful and polite since joining them, and yes he had managed to bring not only her father, who she hadn't seen in years, but also Suki, who was in truth her first girl friend her own age, from prison, and it was pretty clear that without him Aang's firebending would not be improving as quickly as it was. All of these things were clear to Katara. They were clear to everyone in the group. But when you're angry at someone the way she had been at Zuko, logic doesn't come into your mind. She had seen all the good Zuko was doing for them, but that anger had been strong enough to make her ignore it. It had made it easy enough to just assume that he was still the enemy, and that nothing had changed since Ba Sing Se. in truth, everything had changed after Ba Sing Se.
Now, sitting on Ember Island just a few hours after confronting Yon Ra, with the boy in question beside her, Katara was determined to figure him out. Set on getting to the core of the teen and finding out just everything she wanted to know. She wanted to know why, after spending so long chasing them; he had decided to change sides. Wanted to know why, even though his entire family were in the Fire Nation leading the war, he was here. Wanted to understand why, in the midst of an ongoing war, he just couldn't seem to figure out what his plans were. Needed to know why, ever though she had done nothing but make his life difficult since joining, he still came with her on this trip. She wanted to know these things, deserved, no needed to know these things if she was going to truly accept the firebender into the group as one of their own. And that's just where she started the conversation.
"Why ya' do it?" that was all she said. For Katara it was a pretty simple a clear question. For Zuko, judging by the comically confused face that quickly overcame him, it was not that easy.
"Do what?"
"Take me to him?" Katara let her eyes wandered over the horizon as the sun sunk farther down. The feel of the rising moon pushed and pulled, almost against her heart. She could feel it preparing to take over the darkening sky. "Bring my dad back? Save me whenever the temple was crashing? Help Sokka with his crazy prison break idea? Teach Aang firebending? Join us? Side with your sister in Ba Sing Se? Chase us all over the world? You do nothing for months besides make our lives difficult, than you just show up here and… and…"
"Katara?" Zuko had leaned back slightly during the waterbender's question ramble, but quickly found himself leaning forward, his hand on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her. She turned towards him her ocean colored eyes wide at the contact, and he narrowed his glowing gold ones back in concern. She seemed to shake of the sudden ramble with a shack of her head, her loose brown hair trailing a second behind, effectively hiding the bright blush that took hold of her dark features.
"Why did you do it?" she repeated her question in an attempt to cover up her embarrassment.
"Again," Zuko grinned slightly, "am I answering the first question or all of them."
Katara was startled by the small smile that appeared on Zuko's face. To anyone who didn't know the firebender, they might not have thought anything of the sudden upturning of the corner of his mouth, but for Katara, it did not go amiss. "The first one." She muttered.
"I figured I owed you," Zuko shrugged, letting his hand fall away from her shoulder.
"You don't owe me anything Zuko."
"Actually I do." His smile fell suddenly. Katara was once more reminded of the way he had looked whenever she'd yelled at him in Ba Sing Se; that crumbled and defeated expression that had flashed over his face. Here it was again, and Katara couldn't help but remember the events that had taken place under the great city. Zuko seemed to be thinking along the same lines as hers. "I really hurt you, more so than I did Aang and Sokka. I did a lot of bad things while trying to take Aang. Things I can never undo, but am so sorry for."
"It's okay Zuko-"
"-it's not okay. I made your lives horrible. I attacked your home. Your people. I caused so much destruction and chaos, none of which was meant to happen, but I had been too selfish to look around and see what I was really doing. I've attacked you and the others countless times, done nothing except-"
"Will you just shut up for a minute?" Katara couldn't help but hold back the laugh that escaped her lips as she look once more into the sky. This was a scene she never thought would happen. Zuko, the prince of the Fire Nation, apologizing to her like this. Here she had been holding this grudge against him, not letting go of that anger, yet no matter how upset or rage full she had been towards him she still couldn't be as mad at him as he was at himself. While Katara had not been too pleased when he had driven his boat through her wall, it was almost a year ago. She'd almost forgotten how far she had come in that short amount of time, how far all of them had come.
"I forgive you for breaking my wall." She chuckled slightly. "Not sure how gran-gran will feel, seeing as how you're the one who man handled her, but I forgive you."
"That was your grandmother?" Zuko seemed to slide away from her a few inches as he spoke.
"Yep," Katara smiled wickedly. She shifted her eyes to lay on him but kept her face turned away. "She didn't like being compared to someone who was supposed to be over a hundred years old by the way."
"I wasn't trying to insult her," Zuko's eyes searched around franticly, "she was just the oldest person I could see at the time."
"I'm just teasing you Zuko." Katara allowed the grin to sneak itself over her face.
"So…" Zuko seemed to make the single word stretch out for seconds, "does this mean you don't hate me?"
"I guess it means I don't hate." Katara giggled under her breathe. She let the friendly laugh fall from her lips before turning her gaze back onto the firebender. "I want to not hate you anymore Zuko. I want to put everything behind us and move on. But I have to ask you something and I need you to answer honestly."
"Anything." Zuko seemed almost reluctant to respond, the gulp not missing Katara's attention.
"Why did you choose your sister? In Ba Sing Se? After everything that had happened, even after she shot your Uncle, why did you choose her over us?"
Zuko paled suddenly, his already white face losing the normal pinkish blush that always seemed to spread over his cheeks these days. He looked alarmed by the sudden change of topic, but not completely stunned by her bringing it up.
"I just wanted to go home," he muttered, golden eyes cast out onto the endless sea. "Is there anything, anything in the world that you would do anything for? Be anything for?"
Katara's hand reached for her mother's necklace like it was an instinct born with her. Her fingers touched the cold stone and recalled the week it had been lost from her neck, the sense that part of her was missing when she had lost it; the sensation of hocking it back around her neck after Aang had stolen it back from Zuko. Losing it had been like losing a part of herself. She would have given anything during that week just to see it again. Katara nodded slightly, showing Zuko that she was following along and understanding what he was saying.
"I wanted nothing more than to go home, and Azula offered it." Zuko's voice was layered with what Katara could only place as regret and shame, but he kept his head high, eyes glued to the horizon as he spoke. "She offered a way to go back home, a chance to have a normal life again. You have to understand Katara; I hadn't been home for over three years. I was thirteen when I was banished, cast out from the Fire Nation, exhausted three years on a boat doing nothing but sailing and searching, wasted months chasing down a kid in hopes of acceptance and love, only to spent the months leading up to that moment traveling through the Earth Kingdom trying not to starve to death. When she showed up and told me that everything I had dreamed of having could be mine again. I fell for it. There was that voice in the back of my head, which unsurprising sounded like Uncle, telling me that I was about to make a huge mistake.
"But like I'd done so many times, I just ignored it. Ignored that gut feeling that what I was doing was wrong. Ignored the feeling that what Azula promised was impossible. She promised me everything I had been searching for during those three years. My old life. My home. My father, not to think of me as a disgrace. I'd come to accept that those three things were no longer in my grasps. Those were the wishes of a thirteen year old boy. The wishes of a fool. Yet whenever Azula promised that she could bring those things into reality, I couldn't have been more happy to jump on band wagon."
"So the reason you sided against us…" Katara's voice trailed off slightly as she was beginning to figure the prince out. "Was because of your home?"
"It was for this idea of home." Zuko shrugged as if all of this was just water running off his shoulders.
"The home that you left behind to join us?" Katara raised her eyebrows slightly.
"It wasn't until I got back," Zuko's eye sunk from the horizon line, only to be glued to his feet kicking absentmindedly over the dock edge, "that I realized that the home I had worked so hard for wasn't there anymore. That idea of home disappeared the night my mother left."
"You never did tell me what happened to her." Katara nudged her shoulder against his. Her smile welcoming as he lifted his gaze to meet her blue eyes. "When we were Ba Sing Se," oh how everything relates to Ba Sing Se, "you mentioned something about the Fire Nation taking her away but you never really went into much detail."
"It's nothing for you to have to worry about," Zuko's eyes darkened. Katara realized instantly what the firebender was doing. He was retreating back into his shell that she had spent so long breaking open. Seconds ago he was spilling his deepest drives and regrets, all because she asked it of him. Had she over stepped a line? The respectable thing to do in that situation would have been to accept his privacy, not push him, and give him time to sort out what he wanted to say. Only problem being that Katara wasn't going to just let him get away with that. There had been something in his voice, something hidden in the tone that had clung to that maternal instinct inside her that craved to help.
Besides, she had told him all about her mother while she knew nothing of his. It didn't seem right or fair to the waterbender. He had given her the help she needed in letting go of her rage and anger; it was his turn to get some help. "You can talk to me Zuko." Her deeply tanned hand rested carefully on his shoulder. To her surprise he didn't shrug off the contact. "I'm here to listen to anything you have to say. Besides, I told you all about my mom. It's only fair that I try and help you too."
"There's nothing you can really do to help Katara." Zuko's shoulders slumped by a fraction under her hand.
"Maybe not," the comforting tone in her voice surprising both of them, "but that doesn't mean I can't still be here to listen and hear you out." Katara paused for a second. The silence that spread between them almost made Katara certain that now wasn't the best time to discuss that topic. "If you don't want to talk about it right now I understand. But I want you to know that I'll always be here when you're ready."
"Someone should know what really happened." Zuko's sudden voice startled Katara slightly, her hand falling of his shoulder as he turned towards her. Gold met blue in what was an understanding stare. "Just in case something happens…" his eyes lowered slight before the rose again. His golden gaze almost flame like.
"I would have eleven." Zuko began. "Just turned eleven actually, Azula would have been about nine at the time. My grandfather was currently Fire Lord, my dad was already making plans, and Uncle Iroh was off being a general in Ba Sing Se, my cousin, Lu Ten, was with him as well." Zuko paused for a moment allowing Katara the chance to have everything sink in. "During those days the war seemed so far away. It was just the thing that the grown up talked about and I couldn't well imagine what it was like. Uncle wrote a lot about the war front, but they were always just like stories. Tales of soldiers you tell your kids. But none of it really seemed real. Until my cousin died that is. On that last day of the 600 day siege, there had been an explosion. Lu Ten had been at the base of the wall when it happened. They say by time they managed to unbury everyone it was hard to tell who was who. But my uncle knew. And when we heard about the explosion we knew as well. A few hours after the explosion news reached us, there came a messenger hawk. Uncle was calling off the siege and would be home in a week, without a smiling Lu Ten with him. That was when my dad started his crazy plan."
Zuko froze for a moment unsure rather or not to go on. This was something he'd never told anyone. He had never once spoken to the others about the cousin he once had, the family he had lost. Only a select few, the ones who had been with him during that horrible time, knew of the events he was recalling. But even they didn't know the whole truth. That burden rested with Zuko, who had learned it from Ozai. There was a slight chance that Azula had known of their mother's banishment before he had learned, but that wasn't an idea Zuko wanted to think much about. Setting his sight back onto the rising moon, Zuko continued.
"The same day we got the news my father had requested an audience with my grandfather Azulon, who was the current Fire Lord at the time. He brought us along in hopes of showing us off. Well, he brought Azula to show off; I was just there because he couldn't think of a good reason to keep me away. But the actual audience wasn't the important part. It was afterwards that really changed everything. Azulon told us to leave because father wanted to talk to him alone. On the way out Azula pulled me behind the curtain to eavesdrop. I was kind of curious as to what was so important that he didn't want us or mom to hear, but at the same time I was terrified to find out what it was.
"My father… my father… my father took Lu Ten's death and Uncle's coming home and turned it into his own personal platform. He asked my grandfather to revoke my Uncle's birthright of becoming Fire Lord and give it to him instead, all on the basest that Uncle was quitting trying to take Ba Sing Se and with Lu Ten dead Uncle had no heir. Before that moment I had never been so angry. Even from a young age my Uncle had always been there for me, and so had Lu Ten. But even with how angry I was at that moment, my grandfather was even more.
"This is about the time I ran from the room. The moment those flames grew, I was gone. Ran back to my room and hide under the covers. Azula appeared moments later telling me everything I had missed by running. The first thing she said when she walked in was simple. 'Dad's gunna kill you.' Said so light heartedly."
Zuko stumbled over the next set of words trying to get them to come. Katara's hand found his shoulder once more. She squeezed it gently to reassure him that she was still there. Her mind raced with a million and one questions that she already wanted to ask the firebender, but kept quiet to let him finish his tale.
"Azula told me everything that had happened after I ran. Told me that our grandfather had told my father that he should have to feel the same pain that Uncle was feeling." The seconds the words hit Katara's ears she knew what had been planned. She didn't need Zuko to explain it; she understood what Azulon had meant. "He ordered my father to kill me, and he would have without a thought. That was where my mother came in at. She came in to say good night, found Azula in my room still talking about how I should run away to the Earth Kingdom and hide. Woke up later that night to my mother telling me she loved me and to never forget who I was.
"Next morning she was gone, my grandfather was dead, the will was changed, and Ozai was the new Fire Lord. Uncle didn't have the desire to fight for the crown and everyone else was too afraid to be the next person to 'disappear' if they crossed him. It wasn't until the invasion whenever I confronted him that he told me what actually happened that night. How my mother learned about the plan, how she killed my grandfather and changed the will. Only for my father to banish her because even though she had helped him get the Fire Lord role he wanted, she didn't do it for him. She did it for me. Making him Fire Lord was just the only way to get him to help her.
"She's the reason I'm alive right now, and I'm the reason she might not be." Zuko stopped; his shoulders sagging even lower than moments ago. His head hung itself slightly, uneven black bangs draping over his sharp face. Katara's eyes fell to the single tear that cascaded down his check. Her hand reached up without a thought, her palm brushed the unmarred right side of his face, catching the single teardrop in her fingers.
Katara's hand fell away quickly as he spun to meet her. Ember eyes, which shined bright, even through the haunted glow, connecting with startling blue once more. The tear that had dawned his face moments ago now gone, dripping off of her hand.
"You asked me earlier why I wanted to join your guys so bad." Zuko seemed to regain his voice; the sparking flame in his eyes beginning to glow back with its usual intensity. "It was because of her. My Uncle played a huge role in it too, but it was because I realized that what I was doing wasn't what she would have wanted. She gave up everything for me to live my life. She would have been ashamed if she knew everything I've done."
"I think your mother would be proud of you Zuko." The words left Katara's mouth before she even realized. But she meant them. Every word of what she said, and was going to say, she meant it all. "Leaving your home to come help us takes a lot of courage; especially when you had so much to lose if things hadn't worked out. Your mother would be proud of you Zuko. And so would your Uncle. I know that somewhere in the world, both of them are proud of what you've done to help us."
"What makes you so certain." Zuko snorted as if not believing the words that where coming from her lips.
"Because I'm proud of you Zuko. We all are." Katara was startled when his eyes seemed to snap themselves back towards her, the lively flames behind his eyes shining. "You've come a long way from when we met in the South Pole. We're all really proud of what you've done to help us. And even though I've made your life miserable since you joined us, you're still part of this family. I guess you have been a part ever since the Western Air Temple. Rather you like it or not. You're part of it, and we couldn't be happier to get to include you in."
A silent tear feel down Zuko's faces, the water drop leaving a wet trail behind it. Neither of them moved to stop it from its journey.
"I think it's raining." Zuko whispered; his gaze turned away from her. Katara's blue eyes searched the clear night sky in search of a single cloud, but were unable to find what he was talking about.
"It's not raining Zuko." She shook her head.
"I think it's raining." He nodded, the tear drop hitting the curve of his lip, shifting its path down to his chin. Katara's eyes followed the drops route as it left his skin and feel carelessly into the water below. That single drop the only one shed. Leaning her body up against his, Katara nuzzled herself under his arm. Zuko didn't seem to fight back the sudden embrace, but almost seemed to will her to melt into him. His natural warmth seeped through his thin clothing, its heat reaching Katara's skin.
"We should get to bed Zuko." Katara attempted to nod her head in the direction of the beach house, but found his arm blocking her line of vision.
"You go," he shifted slightly in his place on the dock, "I should probably go get the others so they don't freak out over you being gone another night."
"What are you talking about," her blue eyes lifted to meet his, "it's too late for you to go. The campsites at least a four hour flight away and Appa's already pretty tired from all the flying we've done. He won't be able to make it on that long of a trip, and I don't want to have to worry about the two of you being stranded in the middle of nowhere if he falls asleep and crashes."
"You'd be worried about me?" Zuko grinned smugly at her. The heartfelt conversation the two had shared only minutes ago fell away as she glared into his ember eyes. A warm fire met cold ice in a heated stare.
"Don't make me hurt you." She warned, the smile on her face breaking any achieved threat her glare might have made. "I just don't want you to leave just yet. The others can go one more day without us."
"That's fine," Zuko smiled at her. "Your brothers probably asleep anyways, and Agni knows nothing short of an earth quack can wake him." He slid his arm out from around her and stood. His thin white hand appeared in the dark before Katara's face in an offer to help her stand. Her delicate looking fingers wrapped around his hands and she stood.
"You mind carrying me?" Katara's voice was slurred slightly as she yawned. To her surprise Zuko's arm slid back around her, and her feet were lifted from the ground. Resting her head against his firm chest, Katara' drifted off to sleep. Glad that she had made a true friend in the least likely place she would have looked.
Her eyes fluttered twice before closing, Zuko's heartbeat leading sleep to overtake her.
-oOo-
Super Long Authors Note that isn't as long as the actual fic:
For me, Katara held so much hostility towards Zuko, and even though from the time she threatened to turn him inside out at the Western Air Temple and up until their fieldtrip, she's been growing tolerant of him, I think that something else must have happened during that time to really make her forgive him.
Katara doesn't understand Zuko. For so long she understood him to be the enemy, she clearly states "every time I thought of the enemy, it was your face I saw," than Ba Sing Se happened and she really locked him as being the enemy. His showing up at the WAT saying that he's all for "Team Good" would really confuse and irritate Katara. Mainly because she did have this idea of him being the bad guy and that feeling of betrayal at Ba Sing Se would still sting. Let me just say though, Ba Sing Se for me was a huge misunderstanding between the two.
For Zuko, it was the moment he chose this idea of home over his Uncle, an event that sticks within his mind for all of season three. While pretty much all of us were yelling at him to attack Azula, he needed to go home and see how things really are. He was raised in the Fire Nation, taught to believe all that speal (not really a word) about the Fire Nation being the greatest, and all that spreading glory and prosperity talk they teach children. Being a prince, a part of the family who were leading this slaughter, would have meant that the war idea would have been even more grounded into his head. Look at that moment in "Zuko Alone" which was referred to during the Ursa talk, but I will get into more later, with the flashback of them reading Uncle's letter about burning Ba Sing Se. little Zuko and Azula seemed to have no problem with it happening. Because they lived in the Fire Nation and didn't see anything other than what they are told is going on. That knowing what is going on outside the borders and really putting him in a position of a refuge is, for me what really opened Zuko's eyes and the main reason he, in the end, sided with "Team Good." Just took longer than we were hoping for him to see the light. If he had joined them at Ba Sing Se, he never would have known what his home had become, might not have realized just how much his Uncle had given to keep him safe. While I would have loved "Team Good" Zuko for all of season three, that going home was what made him who he was at the end. But that's not how Katara views it.
For Katara, it's the time she offered Zuko a hand and a new start and he had pushed her away. She doesn't know about what his home life was like, how desperation he was to please a father who could care less, she doesn't understand why he turned against them. I don't think she really knows Zuko's entire story, otherwise we might have had a few more snappy remarks about such things from an angry Katara. For her, Ba Sing Se was the moment she decided that Zuko wasn't worth it anymore, and that he was stuck being the villain. For her to really get over what happened in Ba Sing Se, she needed to understand why he did it. She needs to hear from his mouth why after causing them so much trouble; he decided to leave everything and everyone behind to help them. When he chose Azula in Ba Sing Se he really hurt Katara. We could argue that he hurt Iroh just as much, if not more, and while I agree this is not the fic for him. They already got a make-up cute moment in "Old Masters" this is Katara's turn.
Anyways… for all the sweet, innocent, caring and kind moments they show of Katara, they show just as much of her more forceful, angry, vengeful side. That's what makes her such an amazing and memorable character for me. You have her delaying the teams travels just so she can help a struggling village in the enemy's county, way before that you have her risking her life to break into a prison to save Haru even though she didn't really know him at all, than you consider all the motherly things she does through the series and how she's the one who keeps the group together and you have this sweet little girl who wants to help everyone. On the flip side of this innocence, we see *Warrior Katara! Warrior Katara! takes back sass from no one, lets no one walk all over her, fights to the end for her friends, and stands up for what she believes in. Such as whenever she fought Pakku, even though he was a master and she was pretty much self-taught, every time Zuko showed up she kicked his ass to protect her friends and family, she nearly kills Yon-Ra, bloodbends both Hama and the Southern Raiders captain guy, and rushed into more battles than I can count. Not to mention held such a powerful grudge against Zuko that spanned over almost five episodes. Warrior Katara! wouldn't just forgive and forget. King Katara might, but not Warrior Katara!
*I'm now going to call her Warrior Katara! whenever she gets mad. I like the little exclamation point.
So after she tells him all about her mother and he learns a lot about her, Katara feel the need to make the knowledge even. Wan Si Tong would agree that equal knowledge is a good thing. *So that's where the Ursa talk springs from.
*Ursa talk hadn't been part of the original idea when I started on this. It just worked its way in, and I was too in love to get rid of it. It just kind of helped link everything back together to Katara's original questions of 'why', and since the Southern Raiders episode was built around Kya's death, it only seemed right to let the sacrifice Ursa made for her children be known as well. Ozai knows what happened that night, Zuko knows as well. Now he wants someone else to know… just in case something happens to him… because he is the realist in the group ad he realizes that this is war they are fighting.
The whole, "I think it's raining," line was stolen from FullMetal Alchemist. The scene whenever Mustang is crying by Hughes' grave. That's not mine.
I know some of you are all, "Zuko doesn't cry!" but there are certain things that make him. I think out of the whole three sessions he cries like five times, yelling at the sky, Uncle getting hit by Azula's lightning, during that audience with Azulon whenever he screwed up his firebending, at Ember Island during that talk he was coming close, and whenever he reunites with Uncle. Zuko isn't one to just break down in tears and become a blubbering mess of crying and what not. But that doesn't mean he never cries. As tough and badass as Zuko likes to pretend his is, he's still quite emotional.
So the first tear falls after his comment about not knowing if his mother is still alive, and how he sees it as his fault if anything happened to her. Ursa's a touchy subject for him, and TIHYM for me I think talking about it would have triggered something in Zuko.
The second tear falls after Katara's comment about how he's part of the family. I think, and again TIHYM, hearing those words coming from her would have meant something. The others had accepted him into the group, but until Katara really let go of that anger, I don't think he ever saw himself as anything more than just Aang's firebending teacher. I mean sure, Toph and Sokka joke around with him, and they all try to include him in everything, but the tension is still there. And no matter how small it was, that little bit of tension, and Zuko not really knowing where he stands with the waterbender and the rest of the group, would have kept Zuko from seeing that he's been a part of their family pretty much since the moment he joined, even if none of them see it. so Katara gets a tear drop, remember it's just one, Zuko isn't a blubbery crying mess remember, but that one drop would have been noticed by both of them.
A bit of the wonderful Zutara love/friendship was thrown in at the end; just because I needed a way to wrap it up, and I've always loved the image of Zuko carrying Katara.
"So does this mean you don't hate me?"
"I think it means, I kind of like you…"
Oh, how I love life… virtual cookie to whoever could pick up the unintended little parallel with the Maiko scene in the final and my Zutara scene in the middle of all this.
Don't forget to review! A bit out of touch with writing these, but tell me your thoughts. Like? Dislike? Want to bash me in the head? Let me know.