Who doesn't love a self-indulgent fake dating/fake engaged fic? If you don't I suggest you find something else to read. If you do, continue on.
I have about five or so chapters left to write (this should help keep me from abandoning the story, which we can all agree is a win for everyone).
This was not the reunion that Zuko had been planning on. Seven years after the fall of Fire Lord Ozai and the world had calmed down considerably. But, Zuko found, when one ran a nation there was very little of a thing called free time. And unfortunately for him, what little free time he had was now occupied by what felt like a never ending parade of bridal candidates.
At the ripe old age of twenty-three, numerous court advisors had made it clear that Zuko needed to find a wife, produce an heir, and secure his line on the throne, lest someone get the idea into their head that Azula should take the throne.
Which circled back to what felt like a never ending parade of bridal candidates. There were those who demanded a strict adherence to tradition and that the future Fire Lady should come from the nobility of the Fire Nation. There were also those who felt that it might make the world at large feel better if his bride was foreign. The final camp were those who didn't care if she was Fire Nation or Earth Kingdom or Water Tribe so long as Zuko married and produced an heir, and quickly as possible, please.
This wouldn't have been a problem, except like everything in Zuko's life it was. Oh, he'd hoped it would be easy, but time and a difference of opinion on the paths of their future had driven a wedge between Zuko and Mai. They'd tried, of course, but his need to take care of his neglected country outweighed Mai's need to spend time with him. That, and she found the political maneuvering of the Fire Court distasteful on top of not being particularly well trusted given her father's past treachery against the crown.
They had parted ways, Zuko remaining to tend to his people and Mai disappearing into the Order of the White Lotus in an attempt to find a life that was solely hers.
Balls, soirees, parties, festivals…any excuse to throw eligible young women in Zuko's path had suddenly become all the rage in the Fire Nation. He'd actually found a few women that he didn't find utterly boring and enjoyed spending time with, until they'd all taken their leave. One said that she was homesick, another fell ill and had to return home immediately, another had only mumbled something in haste as she left.
Something foul was afoot and he wasn't going to sit on his hands until the plot came to light.
Hence this reunion. His friends plus his uncle were cozily ensconced in his private sitting room, cups in tea in hand. There had been changes here as well. Aang stood on the cusp of adulthood at nineteen, a dark brown beard shadowing his jaw. Toph had left childhood behind as well, if the curves of her now womanly body were any indication. Sokka's resemblance to his father had grown stronger now that he was twenty-two, and it wasn't hard for Zuko to imagine what Hakoda had looked like as a young warrior. Suki may not have had Avatar Kyoshi's height but she certainly had her presence when she walked into a room. Ty Lee was as tall and graceful as any of the dancers in the Caldera's official troupe. Katara was of average height, he supposed, a pleasant balance of curves and muscle and youthful energy at twenty-one. Zuko also did not fail to note that she was sitting on the opposite side of the room from Aang.
"All right, Sifu Hotman," Aang said with a frown and Zuko rolled his eyes at the nickname, "what's going on?"
Iroh chuckled as he poured himself another cup of tea. His golden eyes were as lively as ever, but it seemed that his old body was starting to catch up to him as his movements were slower than they had been in the past. "I imagine it has to do with his current dilemma."
Zuko groaned. "Yes, uncle, thank you."
Chuckling, Iroh sipped at his tea. "I've heard that there's been no shortage of eligible young ladies. I fail to see what the problem is."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Toph said, holding a hand up. "Let me get this straight, you called us here because your love life is a wreck? Sparky, buddy, what makes you think that calling us for help is a good idea?"
Rolling his eyes again, though he knew the gesture was lost on her, Zuko snorted. "Trust me, you're my last option."
"Ouch, that's harsh," Katara said with a frown.
Running a hand through his hair, Zuko started pacing. "As you know, certain parties here in the Fire Nation and abroad are getting….antsy…as I am still unmarried and without an heir. Fearing that Azula will make a claim to the throne if this continues on any longer, they've been pressuring me to choose a consort and produce an heir."
"All stuff we've heard before," Sokka said with a shrug. "So what's the problem, is your winning personality not charming the ladies?"
"The problem," Zuko said between clenched teeth, "is that as soon as I find one I like, they all go running for the hills. They're homesick or someone has fallen ill back home and they have to go take care of this relative or they suddenly wake up one morning and decide that no, they don't want to become the Fire Lady. One or two would be a coincidence, but this has happened on ten different occasions. I know I'm not the easiest person to get along with, but I can't shake the feeling that someone is deliberately scaring my bridal candidates away."
"That's definitely a problem," Aang said with a frown. "You securing your line is vital to maintaining the peace we've built."
"Sounds to me like you need to pick a girl who's not a total pushover," Toph said as she picked at her toes.
"The candidates aren't like you, Toph. They've all been raised to be proper ladies." Zuko snorted. "Or rather unlike you they don't see the benefit of throwing everything they've grown accustomed to away. They like their pampered and proper lifestyles."
"Which means whatever, or whoever, is scaring these girls off is banking on you courting only proper young women," Suki said with a frown.
"They're the ones who are considered acceptable, yes. They're expected to have all the proper courtly manners, political training, and social bearing of a woman who was raised in high society," Zuko said.
"Maybe Ty Lee could go undercover," Katara suggested. "She grew up in the Fire Nation nobility and she's a trained fighter and she doesn't scare easily."
"Don't get me wrong, I adore Zuko," Ty Lee said slowly, "but absolutely nobody is going to buy us as a couple. Not even as a political move."
"Ty Lee is correct," Iroh sighed. "Whoever is behind this will not believe for one second that she and Zuko are serious."
"So what we need is a serious contender," Sokka said as he stroked his goatee.
"But where are we going to find a girl that meets all the requirements that people will actually believe Zuko marrying?" Aang asked.
Sokka's eyes landed on Katara, who was staring at the edge of the tea table and frowning in concentration. "Well, let's see. You need a girl who has, at the very least, some political clout. Someone that is stubborn and unlikely to run away from trouble. Dare I even say run towards trouble. I'd say the ability to move not only amongst the upper echelons of society, but also the poorer classes well. Someone who, should trouble land at her feet, be able to fight back."
"Yes, Sokka," Zuko said dryly, "but where are we going to find this mythical girl?"
Grinning, Sokka got to his feet and gestured towards Katara. "Ta-da! Daughter of the Chief of the Confederated Southern Water Tribe. Waterbending master to the Avatar himself. Personal friend of the Fire Lord. Defeated your sister when she was all hopped up on the comet and then saved your life. Stubbornly gets involved in things that don't actually involve her and won't let them go until she's resolved them to her liking. Can move not only amongst the upper crust of society but is perfectly fine amongst the lower classes as well. And believe it or not cleans up quite nicely!"
"Sokka!" Suki hissed, reaching over and swatting at him.
Zuko looked at Katara who was shrinking in on herself in mortification. He crossed his arms against his chest. "And did you even bother to ask Katara's opinion on this before announcing her as your choice? Because I seem to recall her number one pet peeve is people making decisions for her."
Sokka turned to his sister. "Aww, come on, Katara," he wheedled. "This is for Zuko! You're the perfect candidate because not only are you a completely, one hundred percent plausible choice, you can't leave a friend hanging. It would eat you up inside to walk away from this and you know it."
Katara glared at him. "That's beside the point!" she spat.
"Oh come off it, Sweetness," Toph snorted. "The only other viable option in this room is me and nobody would take me seriously as a candidate either. Sure, you don't have all the proper courtly manners but you're smart enough to learn them, and while social stations in the Southern Water Tribe aren't exactly like the Northern Water Tribe, not even the most hard assed Fire Court nobles are going to kick up a fuss over Zuko getting serious with the daughter of the Chief of the Confederated Southern Water Tribe. And if my history lessons are right, the Fire Nation still owes the Southern Water Tribe big time for what happened during the war. Marrying you is a political move that few people can argue against."
"But Katara and Zuko?" Aang said with forced chuckle. "C'mon, they're friends but can anyone actually believe them being romantically involved?"
"Oh I can," Ty Lee answered with a large smile. "Their auras are so complimentary."
"I don't know how you missed it, Twinkle Toes, but during the war Katara was our group mom and Zuko was our group dad," Toph said. "Honestly I don't know how you didn't see that the only person she didn't mother was Zuko. He was the only one she treated as an equal. Well, once they started getting along anyway."
Aang's face fell.
"As is stands, a union like this would not require romance," Iroh added. "Their friendship would be enough. If Zuko must be forced to marry, it is perfectly reasonable for him to say that if he cannot marry for love, then marrying a friend and ally is the next best thing. Katara fulfills both." Then he shrugged. "Besides, they only have to look convincing. It's not as if we're actually asking them to get married. We simply need to ferret out who is behind this plot to chase away Zuko's bridal candidates. They shall pretend to enter into courtship, and perhaps an engagement. Those can be broken. A marriage is more difficult to end."
Aang shrugged. "I suppose." He got to his feet, fidgeting with his robe. "I need to go check on Appa."
After he fled the room, Toph groaned. "Tch, airbenders. I'm gonna go talk to him."
"It is getting late," Iroh said, looking at the water clock, "and this old body needs its rest."
Suddenly everyone else was making excuses about the hour and how tired they were from the trip, leaving Katara and Zuko alone. She seemed frozen in shock, unable to move at her brother's suggestion that she pretend to be in a relationship with Zuko.
"Um, Katara," Zuko said as he sat down next to her on the sofa. "I don't want you to feel obligated to help me with this. Really. Sokka's suggestion wasn't bad, but you shouldn't feel that you have to go along with it just because he suggested it."
She nodded and the band around Zuko's chest lightened some. He hadn't even been aware that the band was there until he saw her sitting mutely on the sofa after the others had left.
"Zuko…" she said softly, "how long have you been courting with the intent to marry?"
"Ah, about a year now?" Zuko said with a frown. "They were kind enough to give me a couple of years after Mai left to sort through my feelings, but they made it pretty clear about a year ago that enough time had passed and it was time for me to get serious about finding a consort and producing an heir."
"Tell me about the other girls."
"What about them?"
Katara shrugged. "Where were they from? How were you introduced to them? Things like that."
"Oh," Zuko said, cheeks heating. "Well, they were from the usual places. The nobility of the Fire Nation, of course, mostly introduced at official functions here in the palace. Um, girls from the Earth Kingdom nobility – a lot of them from Ba Sing Se actually – and the upper class of the Northern Water Tribe I was introduced to while I was traveling abroad."
"Nobody from the Southern Water Tribe?"
"You don't have nobility," Zuko sighed. "Being as egalitarian as you are, the best we could hope for were the daughters of politicians and…"
"We've got a tribal council and all of the daughters are already married. Except me."
"Katara, you know that I respect you and honestly there were times where I wished that you were amongst the candidates because I wanted a friendly face without an agenda, but we were all under the assumption that your affections were elsewhere engaged. You weren't invited as a slight against you or the Southern Water Tribe. You weren't invited because-"
"Because not even the Fire Lord can compete with the Avatar," Katara sighed.
"Aang's friendship is too important to me," Zuko said softly. "I wasn't about to throw it away over something as trivial as pursuing the same girl."
"You're probably wondering what happened," she said, glancing at him from the corner of her eye.
"What! No, of course not-"
"Zuko, you're still a terrible liar," she teased.
"Okay, so I'm a little curious."
"I suppose it's not unlike what happened between you and Mai. Aang and I started to drift apart and before we could realize what was happening, the things I wanted and the things he wanted were so different and incompatible that we couldn't make it work. I suppose the thing that sealed the deal was, well, we were incompatible. In…that way."
Zuko looked confused. "What way?"
"You know," she said with a vague gesture, "that way."
He stared at her for a moment and then it clicked. "Oh. Oh!" He cleared his throat. "That's…I'm sorry. Was he unable to, uh…"
"The problem really wasn't him, it was me," she sighed. "He felt things and I…didn't. I tried, I really tried, but I never got that…uh…big moment, you know?"
"Actually yeah, I do," he said with a wince. "You go through all the motions but…"
"No big moment," she sighed. "After a dozen attempts without feeling a thing, I finally talked to him about it. At first neither of us wanted to admit that our relationship had changed, that we had changed, but I finally reached the point where I knew that lying to ourselves wasn't going to do us any favors. So I ended things and went to Kyoshi Island to hide for a bit. That's where I was when your message came."
"So you haven't been broken up for very long," Zuko guessed.
"Only a few months," Katara said. "Which is probably why he freaked out a little at Sokka's suggestion. He still thinks we can make it work, we just need to take some time apart."
"You don't think you can make it work, though."
"I went over every last detail of my relationship with Aang with Suki and Ty Lee and the general consensus is that our relationship is deader than dead. There's no way to salvage it, even if we take time apart. What we want now, who we've become…we're too different."
"Incompatible."
She smiled wryly at him. "Something you know a thing or two about."
"Yeah," he snorted.
"Anyway, about what Sokka said earlier," Katara said as she got to her feet. "He's not wrong. I'm the best candidate for the job."
"Like I said, you don't have to feel like you have to-"
"Zuko, you're my friend and you're obviously having trouble and Sokka is annoyingly right about me not being able to leave something alone," she said. "We can work out the details tomorrow; just know that whatever happens from this point forward, we're in this together."
An odd assortment of feelings swirled through Zuko at that proclamation. Relief, anxiety, happiness, sadness…still, there was just something in knowing that Katara would have his back. Not unlike when he'd asked her to accompany him back to the palace to confront Azula before she could be properly crowned as Fire Lord the day of Sozin's Comet.
"Are you sure…"
"I'm sure," she said softly. "You deserve happiness. If there's something I can do to help with that, I'm going to do it."
Zuko let out a slow breath and nodded. "Thank you, Katara. It means a lot that you're willing to help me."
She smiled sadly at him. "Oh Zuko, don't you know? This is what friends are for."
