Inspired by the song Coming Home by Diddy. This story takes place during the series finale of "Sozin's Comet Pt.3" of Avatar the Last Airbender and centers around Zuko and Katara. I do not ship Zutara. I say it now. This is not a Zutara oneshot. They both just fit my idea for the story really well and they are two of my favorite characters from the show. I do not own any of the rights to these characters or to Avatar the Last Airbender, they are the property of Nicktoons.
Please review! I really enjoy hearing all of your feedback, the good, the bad, the somewhat random, all of it! Enjoy!
Heading Home:
Starring at the massive outer wall of Ba Sing Se brings a flood of memories before Zuko's mind. He'd been here before mercilessly hunting the Avatar, this was the place he had fled to, a refugee of his own war, and gave up on his quest beginning to realize the error of his ways. It was also the place he turned on his Uncle, seduced by wishful thinking and Azula's lies, Ba Sing Se fell and he had done nothing to stop it. He didn't stop any of it. The Fire Nation had fallen so far and all he had done was watch from beyond the borders desperate to fulfill his pointless quest. A cool breeze brushes reassuringly against his side, ruffling the collar of his shirt, and pulling him from his reverie. Through the fringes of his black hair he can see the top of the wall looming over him, a testament to the once great Earth Kingdom. The Earth Kingdom was still great he supposed, it just needed to be liberated.
"Zuko?" Her voice seems a bit far off, probably still by the White Lotus' camp, still Katara's concerned tone is unmistakable. One of the strongest people he had ever known and she had a heart of gold, never turning away from people who needed her. The group's collective mother. She calls again, this time closer, Zuko hugs his knees closer to his chest entertaining the idea that if he can make himself smaller maybe she will dismiss him as a rock and move on. "Zuko?" Soft footsteps pad up around the rocks shielding him from view, "Hey, what are you doing out here?" He keeps his eyes on the wall and doesn't answer, not knowing what to say. "Can I sit?" Out of the corner of his eye he can see the blue fabric of her skirt and her shoes.
"Yeah. Spot is all yours." She settles onto the ground pulling her knees into her chest and wrapping her hands around each of her ankles. He can feel her eyes on his face, starring at the side dominated by his scar and he is hit with the realization that he betrayed Katara here as well.
"So?" There is a pause, both of them waiting for the other to say something. "What are you doing out here?"
"Nothing." He shrugs and motions toward the wall, "Just came out for the quiet. Space to think." He leans back on his palms and looks down at his shirt again thinking about all the things he has done which make him a disgrace. Katara makes a thoughtful noise and rests her cheek on the top of her knees still watching him. Uncomfortable with the silence Zuko asks her the same question.
"The same I guess." Her eyes become distant and her face changes, her features falling into a sadder expression. "I'm still worried about Aang." Her sentence hangs in the air between them. How could he be so selfish, contemplating his own self value while the Avatar the only person who could stop the Fire Lord was mysteriously missing a day before Sozin's Comet. Uncle had said that destiny would deliver Aang to where he had to be but Zuko was still concerned as well.
"I'm sure he is fine. Uncle thinks he will be where he is meant to be." Silence. He glances over at Katara and sees she is chewing her bottom lip nervously, her eyes still distant and afraid for Aang. "He will be there Katara." She snaps out of it.
"He has to be." She takes a deep breath and smiles weakly at him, her ocean blue eyes still sad. He returns her smile but only barely. "He would want you to talk about it you know." Zuko shakes his head slightly, the hair over his forehead fluttering with the confused motion. "Aang, he would tell you to talk about it."
"I don't know what you are talking about." The words come out too fast and too defensive, and Zuko scowls down at his shoes.
"You don't have to talk to me, Iroh is just down the hill in his tent." A fact Zuko is well aware of. "He loves you Zuko."
"I know."
"Then let him help you if you won't let me." She reaches out a hand and places it on his knee in a brief reassuring gesture.
"I can't… I…" He tries to come up with an excuse but words won't come to him just the urge to talk that Katara always seems to inspire in everyone. "I can't face them."
"Who?" Despite the cool breeze Zuko starts to feel hot and uncomfortable as if he were engulfed in flames and he has to check to make sure he hasn't accidently started to bend. It was a bad idea to talk about this with Katara; with anyone. He begins to make up some excuse to leave but catches Katara's eye patience and concern etched into the lines of her face and instead the words come tumbling out.
"The White Lotus. The gang. The Fire Nation. Everyone." He stops, expecting her to say something but she just waits quietly for him to go on. "Mostly the Fire Nation I guess… no everyone. It just starts with the Fire Nation. How am I supposed to be their ruler? I'm no Fire Lord!" His hands shake and burn and he has to switch to sitting with his legs crossed leaning forward afraid that he will fall over or lose control of his bending. "The people would never have me anyway. I'm a banished Prince. I turned my back on my own people. How am I supposed to usher in a new age of peace and understanding in the Fire Nation when not even a year ago I was just like them? Why would they listen to me?" He drops his head in his hands sucking in a shaky breath, part of him still unable to believe this is happening. "How could they not hate me?" Frustrated, he jumps up and paces back and forth interlocking his fingers behind his head and trying to focus on the coolness of the night.
"Zuko, you…" Katara remains sitting on the ground but she's pivoted to watch him pace back and forth one arm pressed to the Earth to hold her up and the other resting atop her bent knees. "Zuko you are being too hard on yourself." He shakes his head and drops his hands.
"My whole life all I've done is make mistakes!" Katara starts to shake her head and protest but she is drowned out by Zuko's tirade. "I spent years doing the wrong things! All I ever cared about was getting my honor back and capturing the Avatar. I betrayed my Uncle! The only person who ever treated me like a person, and I betrayed him! I betrayed you! Right here, in Ba Sing Se," He throws his arm out in the direction of the wall, "the only person to ever treat me like I was worth redemption and I betrayed your trust too!"
"But you earned it back!"
"I still did it!" Katara shrinks back at his outburst. "All they know is Zuko the banished Prince. The traitor. Every day they will see me and remember everything I did wrong and they will hate me!" Angry and desperate Zuko lets energy build in his fists and unleashes it all on the pile of rocks that had been hiding him from view. Flames burst from his fists lighting up the night in yellow, orange, and red washing out the natural blues and greens of night. "I can't be the Fire Lord!"
"Zuko, stop!" Katara screams at him over the crackling flames. He looks up and sees she has jumped up from the ground and backed away, her hands instinctively hovering over her water pouch ready for a fight. "Zuko! Stop it now!" His mouth opens in horrified shock when the energy stops coursing through his limbs and the night returns to its prior peace with only the glowing rock a sign of his eruption. He looks back to Katara, still standing a few feet away, feeling sick to his stomach and utterly drained. Without thinking he leans forward looking to support himself on the rock and yelps when the heated rock burns his hand. Katara is at his side bending water around the raw blistering skin before he has time to feel too much of the pain.
"I'm sorry." She looks up at him quickly her blue irises reflecting the pulsing orange rock a foot from them. "I didn't mean to scare you. I should have more control, that was -"
"Shut up." He abruptly closes his mouth and looks down at her still mending his injured hand. She waits until she is finished and drops his hand before continuing, "First of all, I was not scared. In my experience when you get in the way of fire it burns you, which hurts." She flicks his still wet wrist, "Which I'm sure you know." Zuko flexes his hand feeling an odd tingling sensation which normally accompanies healing.
"Yeah I do." His hand travels to his scarred eye. "I learned that a long time ago." Katara steps forward and takes his hand away from his eye.
"Yeah, so did the rest of the world." Zuko's head hangs and he stares at the grass at their feet blowing softly in the breeze, "You are too hard on yourself Zuko. You will be a great Fire Lord. I know it. Your Uncle knows it. Aang knows it. You are the only one who doesn't." He looks up and passed Katara at the top of the Great Wall teetering on the edge of falling back into his regrets. "Zuko look at me." Reluctantly he does as he is instructed and finds her eyes searching his, looking for some part of him that is grasping what she says. "You will be a great Fire Lord because of your mistakes. You have learned from them, can you not see that? A year ago…" She motions toward the sky somehow referencing the past, "A year ago instead of healing you I would have frozen you to the spot and took off running with Sokka and Aang looking over my shoulder every five seconds but not anymore because you have come so far! You learned from what you did and today I am proud to call you my friend." Zuko rubs the back of his neck, uncomfortable with the compliment.
"Um… thank you?" he drops his hand and looks back at her, a comforting smile playing across her lips. "It still doesn't change everything I've done." Katara shakes her head and looks down at the ground for a moment before again returning his gaze.
"You're right, it doesn't. We can't change the past no matter how much we want to," Her hand goes to her mother's necklace. "But the Fire Nation, your Kingdom, they will forgive you. You are not passed redemption. I used to think all fire benders were the same; cruel, hateful, evil, greedy…" She stops seeing Zuko cringe and look away. "Hey," she grabs his chin and forces him to look at her again, her fingers leaving small red spots on his skin, "I thought all those things but I was wrong and you showed me that." Zuko feels the urge to look away from the sincerity in her eyes because he is unable to comprehend the intensity of what she says. "And I refuse to believe that the Fire Nation is home only to people like Azula and your Father because it is home to you too. They are your people Zuko. Yours. Not Ozai's. Not Azula's. Not mine. They are yours, and they are waiting for you to go home and lead them." A heavy silence falls when she stops talking in which Zuko again becomes lost in his thoughts remembering everything he had to learn and suffer before he had gotten to this point.
Katara was right, he couldn't go back and change his past and right his wrongs but he could learn from his mistakes. He had learned from his mistakes. A new, somewhat uncertain yet strong, confidence flowed through him assuring him that he had what he needed to be the ruler he was destined to be. He had a lifetime of lessons to teach his people. He had wise friends like Katara and Aang, the Avatar, who would advise him. He had a home that would forgive his mistakes.
Surprising both of them Zuko pulls Katara into a hug, "Thank you, Katara." After a moment to process, she returns the gesture. When they step back she smiles up at him as if asking if she really helped him. Zuko smiles a rare smile and nods steering her back in the direction of the camp, "I'm ready to go home." She exhales as if she had been holding her breath waiting for his answer and they walk side by side back to camp determined to finally end the Hundred Years War with the rise of the sun.
