Laundry Duty
Summary: Sometimes to get what you want, you have to make a crucial decision: trick or be tricked. Zutara.
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. I also do not own half of the inspiration for this story
A/N: soooooo, here we go again? This story is kinda halfway based off of something I've wanted to do for a while, halfway based off of one of kitkat1327's Zutara Drabbles (I can't link, so search the title and its chapter 79, titled Crying Wolf). Some parts of this isn't built off of something I made up. However, the other parts are.
Oh, I'll clarify that water when we cross that bridge.
This is kind of going to go back and forth between Zuko and Katara's points of view in third person. I won't label it, but when I'm changing to a different person I'll bold the first word, letter, or phrase. I'd drop cap if fanfiction would let me.
This wasn't working.
Rash decisions had never given him a good result in the past, what would make this any different? While it hadn't exactly been rash like his choosing to stand up for what was right so many years ago, it still wasn't thought through entirely. And, of course, this concept hits him while he is sailing through the air in a war balloon.
What if they don't accept him?
They would be completely within their rights, he'd never given them anything to go off of that he's nice; if he had, he'd messed it up with Ba Sing Se. Especially the girl, Katara. The look of betrayal in her eyes was one he'd only ever imagined stained his own. He moved away from the furnace to hold his head in his hands.
Why was he so stupid?
He saw them touch base and moved to land the balloon.
He couldn't go back, that much was obvious. He could only try, try and move foreword and hope that Agni would smile on him for change.
He decided that venturing into town would be best, first.
The town isn't sloe, about the daylight's worth of walking through vicious forest, but he thinks he should bring things to make the peace. He didn't think to take anything with him, so he's supply-less and the Avatar is the same length of time to walk the other way. So, instead of being refused immediately and dying, he makes the trip to town. He at least remembered some pocket money.
So he put up the tarp to the balloon the best he could and started his walk.
It was around midnight when he started his walk, so arriving around midday slightly exhausted was according to plan.
He kept his head down, avoiding eye contact. He should have thought to steal a hat. Another example of his not thinking this through. Still, he stumbled to a stand.
"Can I get a hot meal for this?" He asked, displaying the 5 coppers as if they were all he had in his voice and posture. The vender hesitated a moment, as if debating over saying something in his head.
"Yes," He answered. Zuko allowed his relief to show through his face and handed the man his coins. He nodded, before disappearing behind a beaded curtain behind him. He leaned against the stand, letting his hair fall in front of his face. He heard the bustle behind him, the noise as people tried to haggle and children played. The man returned before he could dwindle any more into his thoughts. "Forgive my rudeness, but please come in and sit down." He gestured to a doorway next to the stand. Zuko nodded and walked into the small building.
The room was not small, as the exterior let on. The ceiling was low (where there was ceiling), but the mans property seemed like it would accommodate many. Where the back wall would be was left empty, making a massive outdoor patio extending back far until two poles marked its end. What appeared to be where the kitchen and a bar stood had an actual ceiling, to his right. Tables seemed randomly scattered, and a place for music seemed to be raised slightly. Then, to make Zuko feel like even more of a fool for a rash decision again, he realized that he didn't know what the original stand sold.
"I'm the only vendor of Fire Sake in the area," The man said, reminding Zuko that he was still behind him, "So forgive me for being caught off guard by your request. Have a seat at the bar, my son will be out with your meal shortly. I must return to the stand." The man disappeared.
Well that answered that.
Zuko took a seat at the bar, close to the entrance he had come from. He heard footsteps and saw a man about his own age with a generic appearance with a plate.
"That was the best we could do over the bread coals, sorry," He said, "We don't usually start cooking until nightfall."
"It's fine." Zuko said and picked up his chopsticks and dug in. He ate faster than he should have, but not fast enough to upset his stomach. He realized the man hadn't left, and was staring at him in fascination, awe, and curiosity.
"Hungary?" He asked. A year ago, he would have cut his throat out. A month ago, he would have ordered his immediate removal from the staff. Today, he just grinned very slightly and nodded.
"My wife kicked me out," The words left his mouth before he could stop to think about them, "I've been walking for a few days with nothing but water." The man chucked.
"That sucks. What did you do?" He asked.
"I honestly don't know. I just think she was tiered of seeing my ugly face around." This peasant banter was easy, he heard conversations like this a hundred times back at the tea shop. The man chucked again.
"You're a good man. Would you like to stick around? I could use help in my kitchens tonight." Zuko shook his head, momentarily tossed into a panic.
"I've got to get a move on. It's another half days walk to my brothers' house. Thank you for the meal." Zuko stood and inched backwards toward the door..
"Come back soon!" The man called before Zuko walked through the door. He saw the man's father selling a bottle to another man, an obvious drunk. He resisted the urge to shake his head and searched the main street for a place that would sell him a hat.
Returning seemed to take longer than arriving. He brought back his findings (mostly spices, he could attack the river) and put the pack that contained them on the bottom of the balloons floor. It was past midnight, and he hadn't slept for days. He dropped to the ground under his tarp, cursing himself for not getting a bedroll, and fell asleep.
The place was huge. Teo, The Duke, and Aang had immediately began to explore. Toph had hung back (she already knew where everything was) and Sokka was looking at the structures, going on and on about how amazing it was. How much of an engineering marvel it was. She just ignored him. Haru seemed to hang back her way, looking at her every couple of seconds. It was kind of unnerving, especially with the mustache.
"Katara?" Aang said, "Were you listing to anything I said?" She hadn't realized he was back.
"No Aang, I'm sorry." She said. It wasn't out of the ordinary, after Ba Sing Se she would just drift into her own thought often. Nobody pointed it out, but they knew. Oh, they knew.
"Well we can all have out own rooms. With beds, beds!"
"That's great Aang" She said with a smile.
"Race to claim!" Toph bellowed and ran off in the direction of the room she must have wanted. The rest of the group followed, as did Katara. She picked a room near one of the many fountains. Sokka took a room with a view that seemed to stand on its own in its tower, but wasn't far from her's. Toph took a room near the top of the tower they were in. Aang took the room next to hers, and Haru took the one of the other side of that. Teo took a room in another tower with The Duke next to him. Katara stood in her new room and looked around. The walls were plain from angles, but from others they glinted the telling of many years of air nomads. She touched the walls. Would this become her own people in time, a shadow of the wall? A myth, only known because of the drawings and retellings of others, but never believed to exist? She shook her head. NO, her people were stronger than tat. They weren't all fools, trusting a sickly honest voice that couldn't have been real but in her wildest dreams.
They wouldn't make the mistake she made, and she wouldn't make it twice.
She must have stood there longer than she thought.
"Katara?" Haru's calming voice came from behind her, "We're, um, kind of hungry. Can you help us with dinner?"
"Of course," She said, imagining the helplessness of his face. Nobody could cook but her, which made it hard when she was tiered and didn't want to but she couldn't le them starve or, La forbid, eat something that they had attempted to cook. She didn't need any food poisoning cases on top of all of the injuries from Toph's 'practicing' with the boys. She turned and walked past him out of the room and started to head down the hallway when she realized something.
"Umm, Haru?" She said, blushing at her foolishness, "Where's the kitchen?"
"Sokka!" Haru yelled.
"Yeah?" Came her brother's voice, mouth most likely filled with food that should be going to the mouths of the group. She almost face-palmed herself.
'Thanks," he said to him and headed toward where the voice was. She found her brother in the kitchen, scarfing down on jerky. "Sokka! We're going to need more meat soon because of you!"
"So I'll go hunting in out new forest." He said with a shrug, "Besides, I'm hungry." She glowered and snatched the ramming jerk out of his hand. He glowered before storming out of the kitchen, murmuring something about hormones. She scowled and picked up some materials from the box they had managed to snap from a harbor ship along the way to make a simple soup for dinner than night. She threw a pot over a small fire that was in the room and raised the water temperature to make it boil so she could throw some cubed cow-chicken into it. She pulled a knife from her leg that Sokka insisted she started wearing after... that day and skinned and cleaned some vegetables and added them to the mix. She covered the pot and rinsed her knife, resheathing it. It was automatic now, the making of dinner in the fastest way possible to avoid being caught by the fire nation. Just the thought of the fire nation shot her back to the caves and she cringed, leaning on a counter in the 'kitchen' of the place, if it could even be called that and threw her attention into studying the place.
It was beautiful, just like the rest of the towers, but also rundown. The walls were black, from mold or fire she didn't want to debate. The visible wall was mosaic in the way of praising the wheat that must of taken over the majority of the air nomads diet. Maybe there was a field somewhere, after all there was a waterfall. Another spot for pooling water that was actually moving in a slow circular movement around a column between two of the windows. That was another thing about this place, it was mostly windows. Which must be nice during the end of the rainy and flooding seasons, for airing out the place. And keeping it from reaking.
The floor was sturdy with a fire pit in the middle, where she was cooking, with a grate over it. The pit was lined with stones, each a tan color and the air nomads symbol on it. The wall behind it where Katara was leaning had a countertop with shelving below and above. The shelves were bare, not even dust seemed to want to reclaim this place.
Enough time had passed, shed decided, that the soup might be almost ready. She lifted the lid and saw that she was right, all of the fixings were cooked. The only probably with quick soup was that it would not have broth, so she dumped a large amount of rice into the pot and pulled the pot away, flopping it onto the floor. If it could sit for 20 minutes it would be fine. She wiped her hands off and lent back, sitting on the shelves - they seemed sturdy enough- and proceeded to lose herself to her thoughts and daydreams.
The next day came too soon.
He felt the sun calling him, whispering to him like an evil child-like Azula, and opened his eyes with a silent prayer not to see her face like he had happened so often back at the place.
That really was a disadvantage of his sister. She would get right in his face while he slept, and he would wake up to her sneer.
"Mai misses you, you should spend the night there instead."
"You killed the Avatar and you're still in fear of me? Why brother, I'm flattered."
"Aren't you sleeping a little late? The court won't wait for you, Zuzu."
He shook his head. She could be hundreds of miles away and still affect him. He got up, ran though a familiar set of stretches and meditation, and ate some of the leftover food he had put aside for him this morning.
"I should practice what I'll say," He said to himself, his mouth full of food. He looked around, and spotted a giant bullfrog, "You won't mind talking with me, will you?" He asked the creature. It gave him a blank stare. He held up the remaining hunk of meat to his meal and the frog took it.
"I'll take that as a yes."
His mind raced as he stood at the end of the cliffside, preparing to go down.
This wasn't going to work.
It couldn't work. Since when did ANY god smile upon any choice he ever made? And aren't the gods the one calling the shots? Or do we really shape our own destiny, or is that just a trick of the mind and all of that mess is actually planned like a good pai-sho player's routine?
But it had to work.
Sure, he had hit many chicanes in his life. Shouldn't one thing go right?
Maybe not.
Maybe so.
He saw the bison fly down to there and tossed his rope down, sliding down to the ground. The bison moved, and he started to speak his rehearsal. And then they revolted.
He should have known this would fail.
Katara started naming all the things he'd done.
Sokka added onto that.
"You once said we could be friends." He found himself saying to the Avatar, "Well I offer myself up to you now." The boy looked to the side, then looked him right in the face, "We can never trust you after all you've done. Leave, now and never come back."
Epic fail.
So here's the first chapter. The second one will be along once I get a roll into school and blah blah. I'm not going to promise weekly updates, but I will update whenever I can. Please review!