Disclaimer: All characters mentioned are not property of Maddie: they belong to Mike and Brian, Avatar God-s.
As she watched the orbs of ice dance in the air before her, Katara tried to visualise her companion's faces. Aang was simple: his big gray eyes and laughing mouth were easy picture. She shaved away the ice to form his grinning face with tiny flicks of her fingers.
Sokka was easy too. Katara made sure to carve his face twisted into a sulky expression; a shape of face that he almost always wore, especially after losing arguments with either her or Zuko. Shards of ice stung her face as she cut them away from the second orb, glistening on the sand like pieces of a shattered chandelier. Once Sokka's features were perfected, she guided the sculpture next to Aang's, onto the soft sand by her feet.
Next was Iroh, then Toph: she shaped the ex-general's face into a huge grin, and her Earthbending friend's into the cheeky expression she wore when teasing Sokka.
One orb remained, hovering soundlessly before her, the silvery ice glistening in the cold winter sunlight. She shivered and twirled her fingers in minute motions, picturing the face that was to go on this sphere: Zuko's. The thought of his face sent shivers coursing down her spine, ruining her concentration and making her glance worriedly along the small beach to a clump of scrub, behind which her camp was situated. She did not want the prince to wander out while she was trying to complete his ice sculpture. She closed her eyes and focused on his pale face: the hollows of his cheekbones, the pucker of that enticing mouth...
Katara would never confess her crush on the Firebender to anyone, not even Momo, in fear of the boy finding out or the repository being horrified. She had considered several times telling Iroh, who she knew would not repulse her secret, but had diminished the inkling after considering the consequences. If the man let just the slightest hint slip...
She abandoned the terrifying thought and surveyed the flawless ice sculpture before her. It drifted, at her will, into the palms of her hands where it rested, cold enough to raise goose bumps on her arms. She had carved the boy's face into a neutral expression, neither a smile nor a frown. His usually golden, ovular eyes were locked on hers, now glossy and expressionless as ice, but able to entrance the girl all the same... The left side of his face was the only distortion, the ice appearing shrivelled where Zuko's burn would be, his eye seared almost shut, only a sliver on his otherwise unmarred face. His choppy, icy hair hung over his face in what Katara thought was a seductive way, shadowing his features and making him seem even more handsome.
His sparkling gray sculpture was realistic enough to tantalise Katara to the point of bursting. With another nervous glance up and down the beach, she lifted the freezing sculpture to eye level and stared at the dramatic contours of the prince's face. In her mind, his lips moved in a soundless call: she answered it, pressing her lips to the ice in a passionate way, convinced almost entirely that this was the real thing. The coldness sent shivers up and down her spine, and she felt her mouth numbing as she continued to press it onto the lustrous surface. But she could not imagine the warmth that would course through her if the real Zuko was to kiss her... With the heavy feeling of disappointment in the pit of her stomach, Katara realised that there was no way she could pretend that this icy replica was Zuko. She went to pull the sculpture away from her mouth, only to find that the ice had been so freezing it had stuck to her lips. Her eyes widening in horror, Katara wrenched the duplicate image of the prince away from her face, feeling pain sting her lips and knowledge that she could not remove it on her own sink in. She cried out in panic, the sound muffled by the ice over her lips. In a last attempt to unstick the sculpture, she shifted her fingers to Bend it into water: she was abruptly daunted when she found her hands were frozen to the duplicate as well as her lips. Whimpering in desperation and embarrassment, Katara stumbled in the direction of camp, hoping she could melt the sculpture over the fire before anyone noticed.
Her efforts were futile. Before she had even properly emerged form the thicket, she had been sensed by Toph, who had made quite a fuss of why her blood was rushing so quickly.
"What's the matter, Sugar Queen? You're in quite a state," enquired the Earthbender, not so much out of concern than curiosity. Katara mumbled an incoherent answer, the words dying on her lips and becoming only sounds, due to the fact that she could not shape the sentence of explanation because her mouth was stuck fast to the ice. Toph edged closer, abandoning her task of collecting more firewood and becoming more and more intruiged as to why her friend was so flustered.
"Katara? Cat got your tongue?" she asked, her milky eyes flickering sightlessly up and down Katara's face. The darker girl mumbled some more, before giving up and stumbling over to the campfire, relieved that the rest of her companions were absent. She felt the heat from the flames warming her numbed hands, and prayed the ice would unstick from her mouth before anyone else walked in on her frantic attempts. Toph lingered behind her.
"Sugar Queen, do you want me to get help? You're heating up rapidly, and your blood is rushing like water over a ledge," the Earthbender informed her, concern creeping into her voice. "I'll get Aang and Sokka. They're only a short distance away."
Katara grunted and shook her head frantically, hoping Toph would pick up on the movement.
"Look, I'll be right back...they're only a few hundred metres away, they're already heading back..." she paused for a moment, then added, "Zuko and Iroh, too."
Katara felt tears of desperation gather in her eyes.
No! Toph, tell them to turn back! Distract them, will you?
Knowing Toph couldn't read her thoughts and feeling more desperate than ever, Katara tore at the ice, begging it to come loose. It did not, however, obey her flustered pleas and remained stuck to her lips. Zuko's once alluring eyes seemed to almost laugh at her, and she could almost imagine how ridiculous she must look. With a final attempt to communicate with Toph, Katara bolted into the thicket in order to find a hiding place. She could sit in some dark hollow until the ice came loose.
Toph, however, seemed more convinced than ever that something was wrong with her friend, so she felt obliged to follow: she stumbled after Katara's retreating vibrations, calling, "Sokka! Aang! There's something wrong with Sugar Queen!"
To Katara's dismay, she heard thudding footsteps coming nearer and nearer, and soon enough the leaves before her parted and out tumbled Aang, her brother and the two Firebenders.
"Katara! Are you okay? Wha-" Aang began, and then was cut off: he was obviously too shocked by her bizarre situation to continue. Sokka stared at her like she was rabid.
"Katara, what's on your face? Is that? ...Katara! Why is Prince Zuko stuck to your face?!"
Toph looked puzzled. "Zuko?"
Aang fell into hysterics, his gray eyes screwed up and tears of laughter spilling out over his cheeks. "It's-it...it's an ice sculpture!" he gasped to Toph, who's face widened into a mischevious grin.
"So it's ice that's got your tongue-"
"Toph! Shut it! Katara, why on earth is that stupid hunk of ice stuck-"
"It's not stupid," interrupted Zuko, who, for a change, was looking quite amused. "It's quite handsome, in fact."
"You! Stay out of this!"
"It's my face. I think I have a right to give my opinion."
"She's my sister! I have right of opinion, not you!" retorted Sokka. Katara was slumped on the ground, her head in her hands, her face red enough to fool any passers-by that she was in fact a very large, very ripe tomato. The ice Zuko remained stuck to her face, its features distorted as it was melting slowly with her body heat. Aang and Toph were leaning on one another for support, unable to stand on their own on account of how hard they were laughing.
"I would like to know why your sister has an ice sculpture of my head stuck to her mouth," Zuko shot back, a great deal calmer than Sokka. Iroh was trying to hide his laughter by observing a large flower growing off one of the vines that encircled a large tree.
"I'd like to know why, too," snapped Sokka, eyeing the prince suspiciously. Katara moaned into her hands and began rocking back and forth, trying to will away the scene before her.
Before Sokka or Zuko could say any more, Iroh had managed to subdue his laughter enough to turn around and say, "Shouldn't we be more worried about Miss Katara, and how we're going to remove the prince from her?"
This statement caused Aang and Toph to collapse into yet another fit of laughter. Sokka, however, refused to see the funny side of the awkward situation and whipped out his boomerang.
"Yes, I think we should focus on getting that thing off her."
Katara whimpered again as Sokka came toward her huddled figure, raising the boomerang threateningly above his head...
Later, when her lips had stopped throbbing and Sokka had finished smashing her sculpture into tiny little pieces (much to the dismay of Zuko: he had keenly claimed that the replica was a perfect vision of 'the real him'), Katara sat with the odd group around the campfire as darkness crept in on them. Aang lay on his back, complaining about stomach aches from the amount of laughing he had done, Momo chattering and leaping about on his belly. Iroh was sipping tea, eyeing Sokka, who was as far away from the Fire Nation prince as he could possibly be, stabbing at the earth with his boomerang. Toph sat cross-legged next to Katara, falling into unexpected fits of giggles every now and then as she pictured the ridiculous situation in her mind's eye. Zuko was smirking at the fire, obviously replaying the hilarious scene over and over in his head, too. Katara refused to meet his eye.
Her mouth was raw from the ice's grip, and the vigour Sokka had put into prying the sculpture from her face with his boomerang. Her face, which had not yet lost the red tinge of embarrassment, was hot with humiliation and she refused to discuss the incident with anyone.
"I'm going to bed," Sokka informed his companions, shooting a glare in Katara's direction, and an even more venomous stare at Zuko. He had not yet recovered from finding his baby sister stuck to "Zuko's" face. Toph followed shortly after, her face screwed up into a huge grin as she glanced at Katara. Aang retired to his tent after saying "goodnight" to Katara and the two Firebenders, shooting an equally cheeky glance Katara's way. She glowered at him, until she realised she was being approached by Zuko. His shadow shrouded her huddled figure, his warmth overpowering Katara as he knelt to look at her face.
"That was a very good sculpture, peasant. Very accurate. Shame your brother smashed it, isn't it?" he chuckled. She flushed bright red and looked away, mumbling incoherently. "May I ask why you were stuck to it?"
Her head shot up, cerelean eyes meeting pure amber. He had a tiny smile on his lips, a tender expression she had never seen him wear. It made him look somehow even more attractive than usual...
Unable to think of anything to say, Katara mouthed wordlessly at the prince, earning a deep chuckle from him. He moved his face a little closer, his breath hot on her cheeks.
"You know," he whispered, "I would kiss you, but I'm afraid to be pryed off you with that pointy boomerang of your brother's."
Katara continued to stare at him, utterly bewildered and cursing her blushing face. She was snapped out of her trance when she heard a growl from her brother's tent.
"I heard that, Prince of Emo. You'd better be afraid," Sokka hissed from inside his sleeping bag. Zuko grinned and walked away, calling, "Goodnight, peasant" over his shoulder as he disappeared into his tent.
Iroh attempted to stifle his laughter by sipping more tea, only to lose control of the chuckles bubbling in his throat and spilling his entire cup content over himself.