Warnings: Zutara, or something like it. And super-short.
Author's Note: Set right after the second season finale, after Zuko and Katara had that nice chat in the cave. I made a very vague illusion to it in the last lines... Anways, I just wanted to write something simple. I also needed to try writing different pairings, especially ones I don't really like. Hope you like it(or at least, don't skewer me)!
Disclaimer: Avatar not mine.
In Katara's mind, Zuko was the face of the enemy—the face of evil. In a world of grey shades where the good wasn't entirely good, the bad not purely bad, it seemed Zuko didn't cross into that spectrum.
In the end, it was a comfort to hate him.
She left him in the snow, not so long ago, and turned her back on the fallen prince. She was content to let him freeze to death, alone, in that icy wasteland. Aang saved him then. The avatar was capable of more compassion than she—and still was.
She felt no sympathy that day, only tasted bitter sweet victory in her mouth. But now she feels….no, not sympathy, Zuko wants no one's sympathy… but compassion.
Katara needs to hate him now, more than ever, with Aang near death in her arms. But she can't quite do it.
Because now, somehow, someway, things are different. It's too hard to hate him.