Woo hoo, first Avatar fic! I always like the feeling of writing for characters I haven't written before.
As many of you were, I am sure, upset at the lack of Zutara in the finale, I was as well. Then this story just came out of nowhere.
I will try not to make Aang a jerk in this, and if it happens anyway I apologize, he is not my favorite character. But I WILL try.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender or any of the characters or names in it. It's late and I'm feeling uncreative, the (somewhat) clever disclaimers will return at a later date.
Enjoy!
Katara entered the room quietly, wishing to avoid eyes of the others in attendance of the party. Being the Avatar's "main squeeze" as one attendee of a previous party had so bluntly put it tended to put her in the line of fire, and by fire she meant fan girls. It wasn't so much the angry and dour ones who bothered her, all she would get from them was an angry glance and fleeting insult, nothing like that affected her anymore. It was the screaming, lovestruck, easily excited ones that really tried her nerves. Aang reveled in it as he always had, but she couldn't stand it, even when Aang wasn't around, like tonight. She adjusted her mask once more before entering the crowd. Thank Roku this was a masquerade.
Finally, she managed to fight her way through the crowd and reach the refreshments table without being recognized. She glanced at the large, red clock on the wall, which gonged six times. Four more hours of this torment. She sighed, lifting a glass of water to her lips. She was eventually going to need something stronger in order to survive this night.
"So I hear you're the Avatar's girl. Quite a job, that must be." A voice said behind her, and she groaned.
"Look. I don't know how exactly you recognized me, but I would appreciate it if you could keep quiet about who I am. I would like a night of peace." She said gruffly, not bothering to turn around. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her waist.
"SIR!" she exclaimed, whipping around, ready to bend the water out of her glass into a perfectly aimed smack for whomever the culprit was. But by the time she had turned to face him, the man was bowing deeply to her.
"I was simply going to remove a stray string from your dress. My sincerest apologies, princess." He said, and Katara noticed that his voice sounded oddly familiar, but her anger prevented her from thinking about that too much. She hated when people called her 'princess'.
"I am not-" she began. And then the man looked up. Katara's jaw dropped for a second, but she quickly recomposed herself and stuck her tongue out. "That was mean, Zuko. Or should I say FIRE LOR-" She began to raise her voice as she said the last two words, but Zuko quickly straightened up and clapped a hand over her mouth.
"Keep quiet, you could blow my cover!" he hissed, looking around fearfully. Katara chuckled.
"After you too, are they?" She said, picking up another glass of water and offering it to Zuko, who took it gratefully and downed half of it in one gulp.
"Yep. Nice costume, by the way. I barely even recognized you. What…exactly are you?" He asked, stepping back a bit to survey Katara's costume. Katara put a hand on her hips, and turned up her nose, pretending to be haughty.
"I am a dragon, for your information." She stated, waving a supposed wing at him. Zuko nearly choked on his second sip of water, laughing.
"You look more like a plant!" He said, gesturing to the many small, leaf-like appendages protruding from Katara's legs and arms. Katara attempted to cross her arms, which proved impossible with the wings strapped on.
"Yes, yes, I know. They were supposed to be scales or…tentacles. Or something. Not that I know what a dragon would be doing with tentacles, either. At least I'm not a penguin." She said, referring to Zuko's attire for the evening.
"At least I'm a classy penguin," he said, straightening his coat jacket. Giving his costume the once over, Katara had to admit he was right. He had donned a concoction of black pants, a black vest over a white shirt, and a well fitten coat jacket. The only part of his costume which looked the least bit laughable was his mask, a fluttery array of white and black feathers with a dark orange beak. "Plus," Zuko added, "Who would expect the fire lord to dress as a penguin?" With a glance to each side, he slyly pulled a red bottle from inside his jacket. "Now what do you say we give that bowl of disgusting punch over there a bit of a kick?" He said, unscrewing the cap of the bottle. Katara smirked.
"That's mean, Zuko." She said, though she didn't really mean it. Zuko shrugged.
"Katara, half the people in this room wish they were drunk already. Who am I to deny them that? Plus, the only reason there's no alcohol here already is because of your boyfriend." He said, tipping a good quarter of the bottle into the bowl of punch. It swirled red for a moment before blending in with the pink. Katara glared at him.
"He just doesn't think drinking is good for anyone." She said, and Zuko smiled.
"I know, I was just kidding." He leaned against the table, taking a tiny swig from the half empty bottle he was now holding, "Ugh, these things go on forever. And it'll be at least another couple of hours before anyone gets drunk enough to do anything amusing." Katara looked around, desperate for anything slightly amusing, but all she could see was aristocrats in tight dresses or shiny black shoes chatting each other up. Then, an idea occurred to her. With a malicious smile, she grabbed the bottle from Zuko and moved as quickly as her costume would allow her towards the giant doors of the ballroom, which led out into the gardens. She glanced over her shoulder and saw that Zuko was following her, glaring, and once out the doors she broke into a run before finally coming to stop behind a very large hedge. Zuko caught up shortly, crossing his arms.
"What are you doing out here? Running through ballrooms is a sure fire way to blow BOTH our covers." He said, taking his bottle back. "And don't drink that, this stuff is strong." Katara laughed outloud for the first time all night.
"Well, it would appear that no one spotted us. And now we don't have to watch a bunch of rich snobs hobknob with each other all night." She said, trying to pull the bottle back from Zuko, who resisted. "Oh come on. I haven't run into a fire nation whiskey yet that I couldn't handle." Zuko smiled.
"This stuff is different. And I guess you're right. It's a perfect night out anyway." He tucked the bottle back inside his jacket and put his hands in his pockets.
"Unstrap my wings for me." Katara said, thrusting an arm in front of Zuko, who nearly burst out laughing.
"If I had a coin for every time I heard that…" He chuckled sarcastically, working the straps free on one of Katara's arms, then the other. She sighed in relief, tossing the discarded wings aside.
"Let's walk." She said, charging ahead, "I'm feeling energetic." She rounded a corner down another path, Zuko close behind.
"I wonder when the next full moon is…" Katara mused, staring up at the sky. She and Zuko had settled down by a bench under a tree after walking for a while, and she had finally persuaded him to give her the bottle of whiskey. It was down to about half full between the two of them. He had been right, it was nothing like the other fire nation whiskeys she'd tried. She had only had a few sips and was already feeling relaxed and comfortably warm, even in the oncoming evening chill.
"Should be about another week or so by the looks of it," Zuko said. He was making his way up the branches of the tree above Katara, "Hey, when does Aang get back from his meeting with the Earth King? I was hoping we could do some sparring before you guys leave again." Katara glanced upward at him.
"Oh, he gets back tomorrow morning. I'm not sure how long we'll be here. Probably at least a few days, Aang loves this city. Well, provided you don't mind us crashing here a while longer." Katara took another small sip from the bottle.
"Hey, lay off that stuff. It's hard to get and it's already half empty." Zuko said, hoisting himself onto a branch a few feet above Katara's head. Katara held the bottle up in front of her.
"I prefer to see it as half full." She said, smiling tipsily up at Zuko, who laughed. Laughing a bit herself, she screwed the top back on the bottle and set it on the ground beside her. "Hey, why isn't Mai here tonight?" She asked.
"Mai? OW!" Zuko landed with a resounding thud on the ground in front of Katara, who burst out laughing.
"Ah, the impeccable grace of the Fire Lord," she said, as Zuko sat up, rubbing his lower back, "Now what have you done with Mai? You didn't answer me."
"She's holed up in her room. She hates parties," Zuko sighed as he reached for the whiskey bottle, "She hates a lot of things, actually."
"Well, at least she doesn't hate you." Katara said.
Zuko smiled. "Most times." Suddenly there was a sound of voices and a lot of giggling just beyond the hedge that hid them from view of the path. Zuko rose quietly to his feet and walked over to the hedge, peeking around. He quickly retreated back to the bench where Katara was. "Looks like a couple of tipsy teenagers. We should get out of here before things get…well, you know." He grimaced, and Katara giggled, pulling herself up off the bench.
"We should get back soon anyway. It must be at least ten by now." She linked arms with Zuko and circled around the tree to another path leading back to the fire nation palace.
The two approached the large doors they had exited through, only to find them closed and locked. Zuko threw his hands up in the air in irritation.
"Who the hell locked these things! I didn't even know these doors had locks." He exclaimed, rattling the doorknob.
"I don't think that'll help much. This place must have a thousand doors, can't you find one that's open at this hour?" Katara asked, and Zuko thought for a moment, and idea came to him.
"Come on!" He said, grabbing Katara's hand and pulling her along behind him.
"Zuko!" Katara laughed, "Where are we going?" Zuko ran along the palace wall for a while, Katara following close behind. Finally, he came to a stop in front of a trelice which led up the wall a good twenty feet to an open window.
"No. No, no, no. I am not climbing that thing! You're the fire lord, don't you have the keys to some door?" Katara said, putting her hands on her hips. Zuko shrugged.
"I don't usually carry them with me. It won't be too hard, it leads to my room. Mai and I used to use it to get back in the palace after…" his voice trailed off and even in the darkness, Katara could see his face turning bright red. She snickered, then sighed.
"Fine, we'll climb it. But I'm going first, and if I fall I expect you to catch me." With that, Katara grabbed ahold of part of the trelice and began to climb. When she was about ten feet up, she chanced a glance downward, and saw Zuko looked up at her, an amused smile on his face.
"What're you smiling at?" she asked, Zuko shook his head.
"Nothing. You just blend in with the trelice in that outfit," he responded, and Katara shot him a glare.
"Just start climbing, fireboy," she said. Zuko nodded and obliged.
Finally, Katara reached the top of the trelice and hoisted herself through the window, falling with a slight squeak onto the wooden floor of the room. She stood up and looked around, rubbing her backside. The room was more comfy that she had imagined. It was warmly lit, with a large bed with a lot of comfy pillows on it. There were posters of famous firebending masters on the walls, a desk covered in papers in the corner, and a considerable amount of clothing on the floor. It didn't look like the room of a master bender and acting Fire Lord at all, she realized, it looked like that of a normal teenage boy. She smiled at this. Sometimes even she forgot that Zuko was really just a normal person.
"Sorry about the mess." Katara turned to see Zuko had crawled through the window himself, and was now scratching the back of his head in embarrassment at the state of his room. "Come on, I'll walk you to your room." He navigated around the piles of clothes, and opened the door for Katara, who smiled at him and walked out into the hallway. He followed her, and they started towards a tall staircase to the left.
"This place is kind of eerie at night," Katara noted, rubbing her arms, "And cold."
"Sorry about that, as ironic as it is, the heating is down right now. We don't usually have to worry about it during the day, but at night it does get a bit chilly. I can get you some extra blankets for your bed, if you'd like," Zuko offered, but Katara shook her head.
"Zuko, I grew up in the land of ice and snow. I think I'll be all right," she explained as the reached the top of the stairs, nearing the room she was staying in. She turned to face him.
"Thank you for saving me from a night of what would have been insufferable boredom. And I will request the location of the place where you get that whiskey," she said, and Zuko laughed quietly.
"Thank you as well. But I am afraid I can't reveal my sources," he winked at her before taking her hand and bending low, kissing it. "Good night…princess." He said, before straightening up. Katara crossed her arms and glared at him, but he could see a smile working it's way onto her face.
"Don't call me that," she stated, and Zuko smiled and nodded before turning back and walking down the stairs. Katara watched him go, shaking her head in amusement, and opened the door to her room to get ready for bed.