Zutara Week 2012

Day 1

Prompt: Serendipity

A/N: Woohoo, Zutara week! My personal favorite time of year. I'm especially excited because this is the first year in which I'll be publishing my own contributions! I hope you enjoy them!


Serendipity: [ser-uhn-dip-i-tee] n. an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.

"Zuko!" Her frantic whisper sounded abnormally loud, echoing against the metal walls. "We'll be caught!"

"By who?" Zuko raised an eyebrow, amused despite his thudding heart. "I'm the Fire Lord."

"I- you- I don't know!" Katara cast a cautious glance around her, as though masked Fire Nation guards would apparate from the tight walls of the tunnel. "We shouldn't be here, Zuko."

"Hush." Their footsteps sounded uncommonly loud, even through his warped ear. Katara's nonsense was getting to him.

"But-"

Zuko held up a hand and pointed, silencing her. "We're here."

Before them was a metal wall, the height of perhaps four men. A complex metal contraption jutted from it at face level; an absurd imitation of a doorknob. On either side of it were two copper dragons, curling and twisting in on their thin, long bodies until they disappeared on either side of the awestruck teenagers. Their fierce faces were contorted into scowls. Beady eyes, rusted over, started down at them; the dragons' jaws were open, waiting.

"How do we open it?"

Zuko turned to Katara, found her eyes wide, sparkling with uabashed excitement. He raised his hands, recalling the detailed instructions Uncle had given him. "Stand back."

Katara obeyed. Zuko positioned his fists underneath the dragons' open, expectant mouths. Torrents of flame sprung from them, swallowed by the inanimate beings. Something seemed to rumble in their copper stomachs, and a moment later, the knob twisted of its own accord. The heavy door opened with a hiss.

Zuko and Katara exchanged a glance, then took a simultaneous step forward.

The vault's ceiling was, oddly enough, domed. The entire room seemed to sparkle; piles of gold, rubies, diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, leaned against the walls, against ancient chests, against tall urns and seemed to swallow them up.

A breathy sigh escaped Katara's lips. "The Fire Nation sure is wealthy."

Zuko's mouth quirked into a wry smile. "Let's look around."

They did so, finding nothing particularily intriguing; though that in of itself was a paradox, considering they were surrounded by chunks of rare jewels.

"Zuko, look at this!"

At her delighted cry, Zuko left the fragile scroll he had been attempting to interpret and went to her. She presented an outstretched hand; in her open palm was a curious jewel.

Zuko leaned in closer to examine it; it was of a midnight blue, cut through with veins of sparkling whites and twinkling emeralds. The stone was cut into a perfect rounded oval, flattened at the bottom so that it lay comfortably in Katara's hand.

"It's the only one," she told him. "At least, I think it is. I can't find any more of it. Though, in a vault of this size, it would probably take me years to search properly."

A memory permeated Zuko's consciousness, a dry winter morning in which he and Azula pored over books as their instructor paced at the head of the room. Lapis Lazuli.

"It's not quite a jewel, but not a rock..." Katara was talking to him; Zuko shook his head free of that day and looked up at her. "What is it, Zuko?"

A small smile spread over his face, almost of its own accord. "Serendipity."

Katara's brow furrowed, but she didn't comment. Soon enough, she dropped the stone, and as soon as her back was turned, Zuko discreetly picked it up and hid it in the folds of his robe.

He wouldn't have need of it soon; not for a long time, he figured, since he and Katara were both teenagers with duties larger than the both of them. Yet, the day would come, he knew, when he'd need to carve a stone; and he felt secure in the slight weight that pressed against his abdomen. He knew which stone he would use.

But more importantly, he thought, as Katara's laugh rang through the metal chamber, he knew who he would carve it for.