Eventualities Are Inevitable - A Zutara Story

Meeoko

Summary : Whilst settling into every day Avatar routines at The Western Air Temple, Zuko and Katara must learn to get along in close quarters. But do they learn more than they bargained for?

Possible Spoilers : The Western Air Temple, The Fire Bending Master and Burning Rock part one and two.

Authors note : My first chapter was received really well. Better than I had hoped actually! So thank you to all who took the time to read, review, offer help and input to better my writing. You guys are all brill. Keep on reviewing!

Chapter Two - 'All's fair in love and Earth Bending'

Zuko made his way toward the eating area, with Toph bouncing lightly on his back. Every now and then, she would Earth Bend up crags in the earth to try and trip him up, but he never faltered.
"Aw Sparky! You're no fun!" she chided, trying again in vain to make him lose his footing. Zuko smirked and bounced her higher up onto his back.

Really, he let Toph get away with murder. If anybody else had ever dared to call him 'Sparky', they would have been on the receiving end of a fireball.
'Zu-zu' was bad enough!
But he liked Toph. When he had first arrived at the Western Air Temple, seeking to join the Avatar's group, she had been the only one to give him a chance – even after he had accidentally burnt her feet. She was like the little sister that had never tried to kill him, he mused humorously.

They approached the campfire. The entire gang was seated around it, including the newest additions to the group; The Duke, Haru, Teo, Suki and Hakoda. In the centre of the campfire, was a bubbling pot of something that smelled rather good. Above it stood Katara, spoon in hand and a grouchy expression when she spotted him coming. He tried his best to ignore her and keep up his good mood.
"I guess you're just going to have to try harder, aren't you, Monkey face?" Zuko prompted back to Toph. She didn't need asking twice.

Raising her slender fists in the air, she began punching at the air above her head, still on his back. The ground beneath Zuko began to rumble. The rest of the gang looked over to them, also hearing the rumbling with raised eyebrows. Zuko waited tensely for something more, but nothing came.
"I think you're losing your touch." he remarked.
"Or am I?" Toph asked back cunningly.

Right away, slabs of circular rock footholds began to jab out underneath Zuko's feet, his body rising and falling uncomfortably in order to keep his balance. He tried to pad away through the seemingly alive disks of rock, but noticed that Toph had surrounded him with two square feet of shuddering, moving earth. He twitched, shifting his weight quickly from foot to foot, moving neither forward or backwards.
"Hey! You tricked me!"
"Let's pick up the pace!" Toph beamed, completely joyous at Zuko's pitiful attempts to keep her on his back. Moving her palms upwards, the disks of earth shot up and down at double speed so that they looked like one singular brown blob.

Zuko hopped around frantically like a rabbit on fire, tilting horribly back and forth, his centre of balance completely off as he tried to stay upright and keep Toph from falling off his back. Toph clapped in triumph, her mouth falling open in hysterical laughter as Zuko seemingly ran on the spot to keep himself (and her) upright. The group around the fire began to giggle. Even Hakoda couldn't help a playful smile passing his lips. Katara gripped her spoon and laughed quite happily as poor Zuko hopped about. Payback time!

"Look guys!" Toph cried to them. "I've tamed the wild Fire Bender!" She made a show of waving her hands in the air, as if she were riding Zuko.
The group fell about laughing around the fire, tears springing to their eyes. Sokka toppled backwards from his seat, clutching his sides. Teo rocked back and forth in his chair, with The Duke supporting himself on the wheel as they laughed out loud. Though Suki tried to remain composed, a fit of giggles left her hunched over laughing, unable to breathe.

"Forget Giant Koi Fish!" Aang spat out through bouts of laughter "That looks way more fun!"
Clapping her hands, Toph's arsenal of swelling earth clumps ceased their pounding and returned into the ground below.
Zuko almost collapsed from relief as his feet touched down onto the unmoving floor and let him regain his breath. With wobbly legs, he bent down to let Toph off his back, still feeling the vibrations of the pounding in the soles of his feet.
"You...are...worse...than...Azula..." he panted feebly at Toph's smirking face

Toph seemed to take this as a compliment and threw her shoulders back proudly, teeth visible from her gigantic grin.
"Of course I am, Sparky! There's not a Bender alive who doesn't fear me!"
She left him to breathe raggedly in a sweaty, dirty heap on the floor. Walking toward the campfire and the promise of food, her grin didn't fade.
"I think you might have broken your slave" The Duke laughed to Toph, pointing at Zuko, who was now sprawled on his back.
Everyone snickered, trying to contain their laughing fits behind palms and hunched shoulders.
"Nah, I think he's still got a month or two's worth left in him!" she joked, lying back against a stone pillar.

Zuko slapped his forehead whilst he still lay on the floor.


After a particularly disturbing conversation involving her Stewed Sea Prunes during dinner, Katara watched everybody head off to bed or into different directions.
She sat around the dying embers of the camp fire with her father, Hakoda, who wiped at the very bottom of his bowl with a finger and licked away some untouched Sea Prune Stew. She stuck her tongue out.
"Dad, that's disgusting!" she gagged.
Hakoda guiltily slurped away the last visible tendril of Sea Prune hanging from his mouth and set the bowl down.

"That was wonderful, Katara." he praised "It's just like being back at The Southern Water Tribe!" Katara beamed at her father, glad to feel appreciated.
"Thanks dad. I've had to learn a few things during the time you were gone. Some things came in really handy while we were travelling, but some things I think that Gran-Gran just taught me because she wanted me to do them for her!"

Hakoda's thoughts drifted back to the old woman and he laughed heartily.
"Yes, I'm sure that scraping away her bunions wasn't a particularly called-upon life skill during your travels!" They both began to giggle stupidly at the fond memory.
"Yeah, it was pretty gross. Sokka got out of it once by getting two fish hooks stuck in his thumb!"
Her fathers eyebrow raised. "Two fish hooks?"
She rolled her eyes "He tried to get the first fish hook out with another fish hook"
They looked at each other for a moment and burst out laughing simultaneously.

Grabbing her in a fatherly bear-hug, Hakoda sighed as he embraced his daughter.
"I've missed this."
Katara looked up at him, a sad smile playing on her lips.
"Me too, dad. Me too."
They remained in silence for a moment before Hakoda moved away and trudged off dreamily to his sleeping quarters, wishing her a good night.

Katara sat contentedly by the fire for several minutes with her eyes closed, breathing in the musky smell of wood smoke.
A rattling sound startled her a little and she opened them.
Zuko was standing across the now dying fire clutching a stack of dirty pots, pans and bowls in one hand stacked together. Katara frowned, but decided not to make too much of a fuss. It was late and she didn't want her good mood completely ruined.
"Zuko, what are you doing?"
He replied quietly, as if he were treading on egg-shells. "I thought you might want help with the dishes."
He seemed to be able to balance everything evenly and neatly. His stance was sure and confident as though he had washed and stacked dishes a thousand times before. This really annoyed Katara, though she couldn't quite figure out why.
Standing up from her seat, she crossed over the dying fire toward him.

"I'm a Water Bender, genius. I'll have these done in a matter of minutes." she reached out to take the crockery from him. He resisted, holding them slightly out of her reach with as much ease and gracefulness as if he were holding a paper Turtleduck.
"Really, Zuko, I'm okay with it. Now will you just give them here!" Katara reached again for the pile in his hands, only to be denied yet again. Her patience began to waver and she caught sight of a flimsy, almost fake smile on his lips, as if he were dealing with something rather painful.
"Well, I could dry them for you." he suggested, still holding them out of reach.
Katara stretched higher on tiptoe, swerving around him tactfully but still unable to find a better angle to grasp the pots from him. "I haven't got anything else to do. Really Katara, it's no problem!" He had a strange tone in his voice. It sounded like he was pleading with her.

Katara's eyebrow twitched, but she stopped trying to snatch the pans from him.
Perhaps he's just trying to be helpful.
"You're pushing your luck, Zuko." then she lowered her voice so low, it was almost a hushed whisper "But, I guess I could use a hand cleaning up."
Zuko could tell by her voice that she wasn't about to admit she wanted his help but was willing to let him anyway. It wasn't easy for her to accept his offer. Though she complained about all the chores and housework she had to do, he had a nagging suspicion that she liked having to play the mother and doing things her way.
I won't ruin it for her. Let her be the boss if she wants.

She beckoned to a corner of the temple where a stream of water ran through a trough in the floor and over the edge into the chasm below. "I wash. You dry."
Perhaps things will get easier, they both thought in unison as they began to wash and dry the dishes.


Authors Note : Phew! This was quite a long chapter. But when you've gotta write - you've gotta write! In this chapter, I wanted to convey a bit more Zuko-Toph time into the plot and get some good natured jokes flinging around. I really love the friendship between Zuko and Toph and thought it would be a good vantage point into each characters relationships with one another.
Also worked on some dad'n'daughter time for Hakoda and Katara. He's been away far too long...

Authors Note 2 : So, Katara and Zuko are slowly working things out. But you know them! Who knows what they'll be like next chapter? Have fun, enjoy and keep on reviewing!