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As always, this 'verse does not belong to me, nor do the characters. No infringement intended to the show's creators or any other fandom authors.
I hope you all enjoy.
Part II: Build
It continued in the sky, on the warm, sturdy back of Appa, with the ground falling away as they flew toward the horizon. Though she lacked an explanation for his presence, she was still too ashamed to ask for one, and so he dozed behind her, pale cheeks flushed red from the chilly altitude.
And when they landed a few hours later on the beach of an unnamed island, he said, "We should be there tomorrow."
She set down her pack where the grass met the sand. "Yeah," she mumbled, "We should."
He paused, holding the last tarp pole in his left hand.
"Have you changed your mind?" he asked, "Do you want to go back?"
"No," she said, "No, I'm just...tired I guess. "
"Tired. Right." The pole slid into place and he pulled on the edge of the canvas to even it out. "I guess you would be. We've been pushing really hard."
She grimaced, still unaccustomed to dealing with him in the plural.
"We have," she agreed, "But I'll be fine. No need to worry."
"I'm not."
Katara stopped and raised an eyebrow, a silent demand for him to explain himself.
He caught her look and sighed.
"I meant that I'm not worried about you not being fine. I know you'll be fine. That's all. Not that I'm not worried about you or your safety."
"Oh," she said, somewhat mollified, "Well, when you put it that way I guess it doesn't sound quite so rude. We should eat. You hungry?"
"Yeah."
"If you start the fire, I'll get the food."
"All right."
She shrugged off her black cloak and walked over to Appa's saddle, listening to the sounds of Zuko readying a fire pit behind her. In the saddlebags were their week's supply of cured meats and dried fruit. She took enough for two and then joined him next to the crackling flames.
"Thank you," he said as she handed him his share.
"You're welcome," she returned. She tossed a dried piece of papaya out of her fruit mixture, and then noticed he was looking at her with a strange expression on his face.
"What?" she asked.
"You said you're welcome," he said.
"Yes? And? Isn't that what you do when someone says thank you?"
"Under ordinary circumstances. But you never say it to me."
Katara stiffened. "I say you're welcome," she huffed, "I say it all the time!"
"No, you say 'sure' or 'fine' or 'you're welcome Little Lord Jerkbender.' You never just say it outright."
Katara felt her face heat up. "That's not true," she said, "I don't treat you like that!"
Zuko looked at her, expression unreadable. "You do," he said, "But since you're apparently not treating me like that tonight, there's something I wanted to ask you."
"What?"
Zuko tore off a piece of dried meat and chewed for a moment before he spoke again. "I wanted to ask you about the captain."
Katara flicked another piece of papaya out of her fruit pile with a nonchalance she didn't feel. "What about him?"
"You did something to him," Zuko said, "You made him fall without touching him. You made him look at you."
"Yes."
"How?"
Katara folded her hands around her rations, appetite suddenly gone.
"It's called bloodbending," she said, "It's...something I can only do under the full moon."
"Bloodbending? You mean using what you can do to control someone else's body?"
Katara nodded. "I don't...like to do it," she said, "And I shouldn't have done it this time. I don't know what came over me. I guess when I thought he was the man, I just wanted to make him feel what it's like to be helpless. What it's like to look on while someone else holds all the cards." Her voice trembled and looked down at the sand. "I wanted to make him feel how I felt the day he took my mother."
"So you reached inside him."
Katara squeezed her eyes shut, forcing back an inner wave of hot shame.
"I did," she said, "I reached inside him and forced him to do what he didn't want to do. It was wrong of me. I know that."
"It was scary," Zuko said, "I've never seen you that intense. I've faced you angry..."
"But you've never faced me murderous," she finished for him. "Don't worry. You can say it. You saw a murderer last night. You saw a terrible, cold-blooded killer."
"Actually, what I saw was a terribly frightened little girl."
Katara's head shot up. Angry words bubbled onto her tongue, but Zuko held up his hand, silencing her before they could be unleashed.
"I'm not calling you a little girl," he said, "I'm saying that I saw the little girl in you. The one that's never gotten over the death of her mother. I saw the part of you that needs this closure."
Katara eyed him for a moment, then exhaled, letting her anger slip away with the ebbing tide.
"You know, you really should learn how to talk to people without sounding like an uppity jerk," she told him, "It would really make conversations go much smoother."
"Yeah well, I've never been good with words," he said.
"Obviously. But you could try."
"I could." He eyed the large chunk of papaya resting in her hand. "You going to eat that?"
"Be my guest," she said.
He plucked the offensive fruit out of her remaining portion.
"Thanks," he said.
"You're welcome," she replied.
Zuko paused, and though his facial expression didn't change, the lilt in his voice gave away his amusement. "That's twice," he said, "One more and I might actually start believing you don't hate me after all."
Katara felt her cheeks go red.
"Oh hush," she growled, and beaned him off the nose with a raisin.
...
When the meal was finished, and the fire had burnt itself to ash, they moved up the beach to their bedrolls under the tarp. They settled in in semi-awkward silence, Katara making sure to leave a safe and chaste distance of sand between them as she crawled inside her sleeping bag. Across from her, Zuko did the same, facing away from her as he lay down.
Appa growled once, as if to bid them goodnight.
Katara laid her head against her makeshift pillow and watched the line of Zuko's back.
"Hey Zuko?" she whispered.
"What?" he asked.
"What happened to your mother?"
The back in question stiffened. He didn't turn to look at her when he answered.
"Why do you want to know?"
"Because…"
"Because you're curious or because you're suspicious?"
Katara curled her fingers around the edge of her sleeping bag.
"Curious," she said, "Just curious. Honest."
There was a long pause.
"I don't know," he said at last, "All I know is there's a chance she could still be alive. My father told me that much."
"Oh! Well…that's good news, isn't it?"
There was another long pause.
"I guess," he said at length.
Katara pulled the blanket up to her chin.
"Are you going to try and find her? When the war is over, I mean?"
"Maybe," he said, "Depends."
"On what?"
"On the outcome. On whether or not we live to see victory."
His words sent a chill through Katara's blood.
"Are you saying you doubt Aang?" she asked, "Are you saying you don't think we can win?"
"I'm saying that I know what we're up against. I know the dangers and they are very real. Your optimism is one of the good things about you, but sometimes it blinds you to the truth."
Katara felt a twinge of hurt. "Well excuse me for wanting to believe," she retorted without conviction, "After all this war has put me through, I'd rather not dwell on the worst-case scenario."
"None of us would." Zuko rolled to face her, eyes dark in the faint starlight, "But coming from a family that's caused one hundred years of bloodshed, it's hard to blindly believe in happily ever after."
Katara swallowed. Zuko looked at her a moment longer before averting his eyes.
"I hope you find what you're looking for tomorrow," he said, "I hope you can at last feel at peace with what's been haunting you, and that you can accept my assistance as my way of saying I'm sorry for betraying you in Ba Sing Se."
"How about for chasing me all over the world?"
"That, too."
"And for trying to burn me the day we cornered Azula?"
"Yeah."
"And the North Pole?"
There was silence. Then, "No. Not the North Pole."
Katara gasped and opened her mouth to retort, but stopped when she realized he was laughing.
"I won the North Pole," he said.
Her own lips twitched. "Not from where I was standing."
"Things look different from the top of the glacier. Your view must have been skewed."
Katara paused, then laughed outright.
"You're still a jerk," she said, giggling, "But I guess since you asked so nicely, I can let all that stuff go."
"You should. It will be easier if we go into this tomorrow as friends and not enemies."
"I know." She slid her hands up under her pillow. "Truce?"
"Truce."
Katara smiled. Zuko buried himself in his blankets.
"I never hated you by the way," she said, "I was angry with you yes, but I never hated you."
Zuko's nose peeked out from beneath the blanket. "Really?"
"Really. For some reason, I could never stop myself from believing that underneath that flawed exterior there might be a decent, if misguided, person."
The rest of Zuko's face appeared. He didn't say anything for a long time, but when he did, Katara felt his words touch her heart.
"Thank you," he whispered, voice raw.
Katara nodded, feeling something new and warm spread through her veins.
"You're welcome."