Title: Red and Blue: A Different Beginning
Author: SCWLC
Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own nuthin'.
Rating: PG for now, I suspect it will go up later but . . . well . . .
Summary: A slightly different start, a little bit of self-deception - they can go a long way together.
Notes: It got kind of weird here, but I was originally posting basically two to four pages a day of this, each meeting/exchange/whatever being a post, except for the whole thing at the Northern Water Tribe. So I sort of jump the shark at the end for an abrupt ending, but . . . well, this is fluff for the sake of fluffiness and 'shippyness. I claim no artistic merit exists here.
The First Exchange
The dragon hawk she'd gotten ahold of to write to Lee caught up to Katara as she stood in the stern of the Fire Nation ship her father and his men had stolen. She was taking a brief stroll to stretch out the kinks before going back to sit with Aang. The creature landed, offering its burden of a letter to her, and Katara hastily took it inside and out of sight, sneaking into the pantry for some jerky to feed it and keep it quiet in her room.
Sitting next to Aang, she opened the letter.
Dear Katara,
I know you'll be disappointed in me, but my sister came and promised me the chance to go home if I helped her during the invasion of Ba Sing Se. I
Several words, sentences and even a paragraph were crossed out before the writing continued.
You don't know what it's like being an exile. I know you miss your home, but you chose to leave and will be welcomed back at any time. I haven't been home in three years and I miss it. I miss everything, even the way my sister makes fun of everything I do.
I can almost see how disappointed you are in me, but I did it, at least a little, for you. My family is wealthy. Once I have access to the family coffers again I can buy you everything you deserve – everything I want for you. I don't know what I would have done these past few months without you and I just hope that you'll understand.
If you don't I
Many more things were crossed out, and there were some suspicious smears that might have been tears on the page.
I love you,
Lee
Katara read the letter at least a dozen times before it worked through her mind. Then she was scrambling for a brush, ink and paper.
Dear Lee,
I can't believe you! If you think I care even a little bit about your family's money, you're a huge idiot. I care about you. I have to tell you that, from everything you've told me about your sister, something smells fishy. I'm a waterbender, and I know fishy. This is it.
What did your uncle say? I can't believe that he didn't say anything when you went off and joined in with the invasion force. What were you thinking anyhow! I thought you were happy in Ba Sing Se. If you needed a place to stay or hide, you could have asked me. My friends and I would have brought you with us.
She paused for a long time, looking at her letter, then sighed. The first flush of her temper started to wear off, and Katara found herself able to look at the other side of things.
On the other hand, I can understand that you wanted to go home. I remember how hurt you were when you first heard you'd been declared a traitor, and I can't imagine what it would be like to be told I wasn't allowed to ever see Gran-gran or the South Pole again. Nothing's quite like home, is it?
Lee, I just wish I could make you understand that it's not the money that I liked you for. Yes, it was nice that you could rent a room for me at a moment's notice just because I was sick. What made it special was that you thought of it, that you kept me warm and got me chicken lizard soup.
You're so special without all the extra frills, Lee. If you ever change your mind, if you and your uncle decide to rejoin us on the right side of the war, I'll be waiting.
Love,
Katara
The Second Exchange
Zuko stared at the letter in his hand. Katara was right. He was an idiot. He'd handed his uncle over to be jailed because he'd wanted to impress her with his wealth and power, and because he wanted to go home to a father and sister who thought he was beneath them. What was wrong with him?
Now she'd never trust him again, and he owed his uncle a world's worth of apologies. Also, he'd forgotten something very important when he'd leapt to join Azula to be able to go home.
"Orange is such an awful colour."
He wanted to slam his head repeatedly against the wall. "Then you can go inside and not have to look at the sky, Mai."
She shot him an irritated look. "There was a time when you weren't this dull and self-centred," she told him.
"There was a time I actually thought you were pretty," Zuko retorted. "Look," he said, sighing. "I don't know why you're here. I don't know if it's because Azula talked you into it, or if it's that you actually feel attracted to me, but I'm not interested, Mai. Please. Just stop flogging a dead ostrich horse."
She huffed and stormed off. He wasn't left alone, though.
"You seem to be doing that an awful lot, Zuzu," his sister's voice grated on his nerves.
"What do you want Azula?" he asked.
"Nothing," she told him, looking smug. "But if people find out you've been to see Uncle-"
"That would be awfully hard," Zuko told her, cutting her off. "Since I haven't."
"So you're not going to try to explain yourself to him, Zuzu?" she asked, all pouty lips and jaw-clenching annoyance.
"No," he said. "What's the point? I've abandoned my honour and principles to help you abuse people who don't deserve it. He'll never forgive me, and I've earned that."
She hung around, taunting him, but Zuko found that the argument had clarified his plans. That night, he'd break his uncle out or die trying. So, just in case, he wrote a letter to Katara, and sent it off.
Dear Katara,
First of all, by the time you get this, I might be dead. Just to warn you, so that if you don't get a response to any letters you send to yell at me, you'll know it's not because I'm ignoring you. I did some pretty awful things when I joined up with my sister, and one of them was letting her imprison Uncle.
That's right, I let them take him. I'm going to break him out tonight, but I may not be able to get past all the guards and everything, so I'm just going to do my best. I'll let you know if I made it in a few days. That is, as soon as I can, I'll send you a letter to let you know.
It's been horrible here. I miss Uncle, I miss the freedom I had on the road, I even miss serving tea. Mostly, I miss you. I miss you even more when my sister's friend tries to make me into her boyfriend. Every time I tell her I'm not interested she gets more annoying and more persistent. She's certainly not as pretty as you are.
Anyhow, if I don't make it, Katara, I love you. There. I said it.
Hopefully, I'll see you sometime,
Lee
He sent off the letter, changed into his Blue Spirit costume and set off to break his uncle out of prison. The plan went off without a hitch until he was in his uncle's cell, unconscious guards littering the halls, about to be discovered any second when the shift change went through, and his uncle refused to budge.
"Do you think you can just return to the palace and your father will let everything go?" his uncle lectured. "More to the point, do you think you can solve all your problems and gain my forgiveness by helping me to escape?"
"No," Zuko hissed. "Uncle, time is running out. Can we-"
"And what of your young lady?" Iroh asked, "Does she know-"
"Yes," Zuko finally snapped. "I sent her a letter telling her what I'd done and why, and she said I was an idiot and that she didn't want the luxuries I told her I'd give her."
His uncle stopped mid-rant and then dropped his head into his hands with a muffled giggle. "Make this one thing clear for me, Prince Zuko," he said. "Did you betray my trust and the city of Ba Sing Se because you wished to have access to more funds to impress a pretty girl?"
"When you put it that way it sounds bad," Zuko muttered, knowing perfectly well it sounded bad no matter what.
"She has convinced you to put this behind you?" Iroh asked, straightening. "To move on, and perhaps stop chasing after the affection of your father?"
"Yes!" Zuko snapped. "Can you finish asking me questions when we're out of here?" he demanded.
As they made their way from the prison, and back to a life of poverty and constant flight, his uncle said, "I must thank her for bringing you to your senses."
Dear Lee,
YOU MIGHT BE DEAD! YOU'D BETTER NOT BE WHEN THIS ARRIVES OR I'LL HAVE TO KILL YOU MYSELF! AND YOU LET THEM SEND MUSHI TO PRISON! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?
YOU'RE GOING TO BE FINE AND YOU'RE COMING HERE BECAUSE APPARENTLY I HAVE TO KEEP AN EYE ON YOU, YOU IDIOT!
ARE WE CLEAR ON THIS?
Katara
PS I love you too, even if you are an idiot, so you'd better not be dead.
"You had best reply to your young lady," his uncle said from where he'd been reading over Zuko's shoulder. "I do not think she will take well to anything less than an immediate reply."
Zuko just stuck his tongue out at his uncle before sitting down to write a suitable apology.
The Third Exchange
Katara had taken to pacing anxiously in her free time, waiting for Lee's dragon hawk to arrive telling her that he wasn't dead so she could water whip him to death herself for making her as scared as she was. Sokka and Aang both thought she was worried about their father, the invasion, being lost in enemy territory and the million other things that preyed on her mind in the brief moments she wasn't worrying about Lee.
Toph knew why Katara was upset, and had managed, for the most part, to refrain from making Katara worry even more. She had, however, offered some very choice words to add to the next letter Katara sent to Lee, on the topic of letting his uncle go to prison. Since the girl had developed a very deep affection for the old man, Katara could hardly blame her, although it made her ears burn to be writing those phrases on Toph's behalf.
Finally, finally, finally, finally the dragon hawk arrived with it's precious burden. Ignoring that she was supposed to be making dinner and a bunch of other things, Katara sprinted off with her letter and curled up in a nice little private bolthole up a tree to read.
Dear Katara,
Uncle is fine and sends his regards.
I am most appreciative of your efforts to convince my nephew that there are more important things than honour and the glory of the Fire Nation.
It will take us some time to get away from everything. We're having to duck patrols and things to avoid being caught, so I expect we'll be a while before we can catch up to you.
Do not worry. I will ensure that my nephew does not manage to get himself into any more trouble than usual.
Katara, I know that you said you don't care if I have money, but I don't know what I can give you if I don't. You're an amazing bender, I've never seen anything like how you healed Uncle that time in the Earth Kingdom. You're beautiful, kind, smart and so many things I'm not. I guess what I'm saying is, I know I was dumb for betraying Uncle while trying to impress you, but I didn't know what else to do to be worthy of you. Before I was declared a traitor, I could buy you pretty things, presents, anything you needed. Now all I can offer you is a third-rate firebender.
We shall have to do something about his raging ego, Miss Katara.
Anyhow, Uncle and I will come find you and your friends as soon as we can. Just tell me where to go.
I love you,
Lee
P.S. Ignore the crossed out bits, Uncle stole the letter before I could send it, and I didn't have time to cross them out properly.
Katara smiled happily and scribbled her reply quickly.
Dear Lee,
You have much more to offer than just a third rate firebender. First, you are a good person, no matter how hard you try to pretend you're not. Second, you're interesting, nice, fun, handsome and I refuse to believe you're a third rate anything.
Anyhow, I'm not that pretty and the healing isn't all that impressive. Yugoda at the Northern Water Tribe is a healing master. I can just do a few simple things. So, really, you don't have to worry about impressing me. I'm not all that impressive.
We've just passed through the village of Jang Hui, and I expect we'll be on the main Island in the next few days. I'll give you a better idea of where once I know myself.
Stay safe so I don't have to fix you up the next time I see you, okay?
I love you,
Katara
Then, considering, she stuffed the sheet with Toph's succinct, yet foul, message for Zuko on the topic of betraying his uncle into the leather carrying case.
P.S. Toph had a few things to say, so she asked me to write them down for her. I'm sending her letter along with this one.
The Fourth Exchange
Zuko read the note from Toph for the third time. Some of the things in that note he wasn't sure were anatomically possible, and most of them were four different kinds of vileness in both language and content. However, he had to admit that the crass note was quite effective as a threat.
He had to wonder, though, how the girl had picked up such language.
Writing a reply to Toph was easy. Adding in his uncle's reply was simple as well. He was in a dilemma on how to respond to Katara's letter, however. Most important, he had to disabuse her of the notion that she wasn't all that pretty. She was amazing and beautiful and he had to make sure she knew that.
The other problem was the one he wasn't sure how to approach. The part where she thought he was 'nice, interesting, fun and handsome,' had him baffled and worried about her sanity.
Dear Katara,
First, and most important, you are not, "not that pretty." You are beautiful. Your skin is lovely and exotic, soft and just perfect. It makes your eyes an even deeper blue. Your eyes, you should know are as deep as the ocean and you make me want to drown myself in them every time I look at your eyes. I love the way your hair is wild and goes everywhere. It's gorgeous and it's just like you. Wild, untameable and beautiful.
Second, I don't know this Yugoda. I know you, and your healing is amazing. You are amazing. Obviously I have to worry about impressing you.
This brings me to one other thing. I love that you're so crazy you think I'm nice, but I'm not. I'm a horrible person. I betrayed Uncle and I betrayed your trust. You expected me to be a good and honourable person, and I was so busy chasing after my honour that I was completely dishonourable and I don't know why you even still talk to me. You'd be better off finding someone who wasn't a terrible person.
I don't even know what's wrong with me, that I'm trying to convince you that you should find someone else, but I have to tell you the truth about that, even if it hurts me. I've done too many bad things already.
The other thing I need to talk about with you is why you're in the Fire Nation at all. What are you doing here? You're Water Tribe! You could be hurt! You should get back to the Earth Kingdom as soon as you can. I could meet you at that town we met in when you were sick that time.
Either way, it'll take me and Uncle a while to shake the people chasing us.
Please be careful.
I love you,
Lee
The letter he got a week and a few days later changed Zuko's mind about laying low and taking his time to find Katara.
Lee,
I don't know how you can say you're a bad person. You've never met Hama. She's a waterbender from the Southern Tribe. Like me. She was taken by Fire Nation soldiers years and years ago. She escaped by learning to bend their blood. She used it to get away, then she used it on the people of this village.
It was horrible.
I thought I'd found another teacher. Someone who could help me with my bending and who was from the Southern Tribe, too. But she was killing people, Lee. She was using her bending to kidnap them and lock them up in this horrible little cave, and they might have all died if my friends hadn't gotten lucky and found where she was keeping the villagers. She blamed the whole Fire Nation for the war, even children.
She made me bloodbend, Lee. I had to. She was going to make my friends kill each other with her bending and I had to stop her. I feel awful. Now I know how to, will it make me crazy like her?
I wish we hadn't come here, but my friend needs a firebending teacher. Where are we going to find a teacher for him?
I miss you so much right now Lee. We're heading for the capital because there's an invasion planned for this upcoming eclipse of the sun. Hopefully we'll all be okay, but you should probably just keep out of sight.
I love you,
Katara
"Uncle! We're heading back home! Let's go!"
"Sunset has just begun, Nephew. Perhaps we should wait until it is morning to travel?"
"Aarrgh!"
The Fifth Exchange
The invasion had been an unmitigated disaster. They had failed to hold the city, they had failed to defeat the Fire Lord, they had failed to even keep their troops from being captured. Now her father and his men were all locked away in a Fire Nation prison, Sokka was blaming himself for the bad plan, Aang was blaming himself for failing to defeat Ozai, Haru, Teo and the other kids were depressed because their families were all in trouble and it was bringing even Toph down as a result.
Katara hadn't had time to properly process it all, but once she had and had had a good cry over it, she felt better able to cope. Then she got Lee's response to her last letter.
Dear Katara,
I'm on my way.
WHAT WERE YOU THINKING GETTING INVOLVED IN THAT CRAZY INVASION PLAN! THE ECLIPSE ONLY LASTED EIGHT MINUTES AND EVERYONE KNEW ABOUT IT! WHAT WERE YOU GOING TO DO WHEN THE EIGHT MINUTES WERE UP!
FORGET ME BEING AN IDIOT, CLEARLY YOU NEED SOMEONE THERE TO SIT ON YOU AND MAKE YOU HAVE COMMON SENSE! DON'T YOU DARE MOVE A MUSCLE FROM WHEREVER YOU ARE. WE ARE COMING TO GET YOU AND THEN I'M GOING TO MAKE SURE YOU NEVER GO ANYWHERE WITHOUT SOMEONE WITH MORE SENSE THAN YOU WITH YOU!
DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT, AND YOU'D BETTER BE OKAY WHEN YOU GET THIS OR I'LL HAVE TO DO SOMETHING YOU WON'T LIKE!
I love you,
Lee
Miss Katara,
Perhaps you should reply quickly to this as my nephew has become most unpleasant to live with in his worry for you.
P.S. Ignore Uncle.
For a moment she bristled at Lee's tone, then she wryly admitted that he had every right to be worried, and decided to think it was sweet that he was that concerned for her. After all, he'd never seen her bend in a fight, just do a little practice, healing and rescuing people after the siege at the North Pole.
If firebending weren't such a naturally combative element, she might well have been concerned for Lee's safety on a more day-to-day basis. Still, missing him very badly, Katara finally just wrote what she'd been wanting write ever since they started travelling in the Fire Nation.
Dear Lee,
We're all okay here, but, like you heard, the invasion was a failure. Most of the invading force was taken captive and the rest of us barely escaped. After the mess with the Fire Lord, it's pretty obvious now that we need a firebending teacher even more than ever.
You and your uncle are the only firebenders I can trust right now, so I'm asking you to come to the Western Air Temple, where we'll be until further notice, to teach firebending.
I'm not just asking because of how my much friend needs a teacher. I'm asking because I miss you. I'm scared and I'm tired of being the one the others lean on when they're scared. You're strong, Lee. I miss being able to just . . . not have to be strong with you. I miss you so much.
Please come, Lee.
I love you,
Katara
Then she sent off the dragon-hawk, saving the fact she'd gotten Aang a firebending teacher as a surprise for her friends. It would be nice to be able to give them a pleasant surprise when Lee and Mushi caught up to them.
The Sixth Exchange
Dear Katara,
We're at the foot of the mountain with the temple on it. I can tell because of all the ancient, shattered tanks on the floor down here. Where are you?
Lee
Dear Lee,
Just wait a few minutes. I'll be right down with everyone to meet you.
Katara
P.S. Don't be nervous.
It Starts
"Why would she say I shouldn't be nervous?" Zuko asked, pacing and generally making a racket as he stomped on every loose stone and branch in his path.
His uncle looked at him for a moment, shook his head, and said, "I have already told you why, several times, Nephew. The fact that you refuse to believe me-"
"Uncle! Enough! Katara is not one of the Avatar's companions!"
There was a whoosh and a thud, and the Avatar's bison landed next to them. Zuko leaped back, eyes wide, as the Avatar, his Water Tribe friend, Katara's earthbending friend, a few others he'd never laid eyes on before and Katara all dismounted. "Lee!" Katara said, excitedly, and leaped into his arms.
For a moment, everything in his world was okay, because Katara was there and kissing him.
Then reality intruded.
"KATARA! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!" Came the Water Tribe boy's voice in what could only be termed a shriek.
She ignored him, and said to Zuko, "Where did you get the idea that I wasn't travelling with Aang?"
Zuko dimly heard himself sputter, but couldn't quite spit out an answer, as all the coincidences, glimpses of a second figure in Water Tribe blue, and the various hints in Katara's conversation all came together in his head.
"Denial is a powerful force," his uncle put in, mildly.
The boy in blue wasn't going to let himself be ignored and grabbed Katara away. "WHAT PART OF GUY WITH AN UGLY SCAR ON HIS FACE AND A PONYTAIL DIDN'T YOU GET!"
Katara stared. Her brother was practically magenta as he waved his hands in the air, punctuating his words. The Avatar's eyes were the size of dinner plates and his mouth was wide open. The earthbending girl had an amused grin on her face, and seemed to be watching the show, however a blind girl watched a show, while the ones Zuko didn't know just looked a little confused. "He's Zuko?" she asked in a small voice.
"YES!"
"You didn't say he just had a scar!" she defended. "You said he was ugly and had a scar! It's not the same thing!"
"YES IT IS!"
Katara was getting as upset as the boy who had to be the brother she'd mentioned so often. "No, it's not!" she shouted. "Lee's not ugly! Just because someone has a scar on his face doesn't mean he's some prince!"
"YOU KNEW WHAT I MEANT!"
"You said he was ugly!"
"IT'S THE SAME THING!"
"No, it's not!"
"Wait!" shouted the Avatar. When the siblings fell silent, he turned to Katara. "You thought that Zuko wasn't Zuko, but someone named Lee because he's not ugly?"
Katara pouted. "You said he was ugly. He's not."
"Is he why you don't wanna be my girlfriend?" the Avatar said, suddenly whining. "You like Zuko?"
"I didn't know he was Zuko!" she defended.
"BUT YOU'RE NOT DENYING IT, ARE YOU!" screamed her brother.
Zuko idly wondered whether he talked like this all the time, or if his voice was going to give out soon.
Suddenly, Katara spun toward him. "Were you just my boyfriend to get close to Aang?" she asked him, tearfully.
"YES!"
"No!" Zuko replied. He grabbed her upper arms, bracing himself against her so that she was looking at him. "No," he repeated. "I didn't know you were even travelling with the Avatar. All those times . . . I thought it was just coincidence. I . . . I didn't want you to be travelling with the Avatar because it meant you'd be . . . the enemy." He shook his head, pulling away. "I was so stupid."
"I was stupid like that too," she confessed. Then she took another step and wrapped her arms around him. "I wanted you to be my friend, Lee."
"Just your friend?"
"More, and you know it."
"YOU BOTH STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!"
The Water boy's hysterics had reached a point where you could completely ignore him if you wanted. Zuko was vaguely aware of four of the others exchanging some sort of bets relating to the colours the boy was turning, whether he was going to pass out, and a denial that it was fair for Toph to be involved because she could hear his clearly strained heartbeat and it gave her an unfair advantage in the betting pool.
"Are you and your uncle still willing to teach Aang?" she asked.
How could he say no to those eyes that were bluer than the sky and deeper than the ocean? He said as much.
"STOP SAYING ROMANTIC GOOPY THINGS TO MY SISTER!"
"I'm sure Uncle will be willing to help, too," he told Katara.
"Good," she said.
Then they were kissing.
"WHA – NO! YOU – BAD KATARA! YOU – BAD! AAUUUGHckthpfffffffcthkpt."
"Wow," said one of the Ones Zuko Had Never Met. "I've never seen anyone turn that colour before. Do you suppose the foam means he has rabies?"
Katara wrenched herself away and they both spotted her brother, who was, indeed, several very interesting shades ranging between a sort of beige all the way to a kind of reddish purple, mottled together very unattractively. There was also foam around the edges of his mouth as he sat there on the ground looking shellshocked. As Katara began to minister to him, he began muttering, "No, Katara. Boys bad. Bad and cooties. With bad and badness. Must not . . . bad." He was clearly pleading.
"You have made quite an impression, Nephew," his uncle said.
Then, to make this whole day complete, the bison licked him. Somehow, it wasn't even worth steaming all the spit away in that moment.
The Madness Continues
Katara had a lot of questions for Lee – Zuko, she corrected herself, so the first chance she got to distract Sokka by sticking Boomerang into a mud puddle so he'd leave them alone and she could talk to her boyfriend in peace, she took.
"L – Zuko," she started.
"Yes?" he asked. Now that she was looking, she could see the prince in him. The way he held himself was like the noblemen she'd seen while travelling with Aang, and his skin and hair were the distinct kinds native to the Fire Islands.
She bit her lip, but forced herself to confront the issue. "Why didn't you tell me you were the prince?"
He sighed. "At first I just didn't want you to give me away. If the Ava – Aang, had heard I was nearby, he would have fled and I would lose him again. Also . . . you thought of the Fire Nation as the enemy," he added. "I didn't want you to think of me that way. I wanted you to like me."
Well, she couldn't fault that logic, could she? "Okay, just one more question," she said.
"Ask," he told her.
"Why were you trying to capture Aang?" she asked him.
So he told her. He told her all about the day he'd tried to keep innocent lives from being lost for no reason, about a father who would maim his own son and banish him, about desperation to get home and prove he deserved his father's love. When he finished and looked up at her from where his gaze had fallen to his feet, she was crying. "Katara? What's wrong?" he asked, anxiously.
"Oh, Lee," she threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around him and crawling into his lap. "I'm so sorry. You didn't deserve any of it and I'm a horrible person because I'm so happy it happened because you wouldn't have met me if it had and I shouldn't be happy but-"
He kissed her.
Katara leaned into that wonderful lean body and was soon clinging to him like a sucker-sloth to a tree.
"Katara!" her brother's voice shrieked from nearby, and he yanked them apart. "What did I tell you about boys!"
Katara blinked at him. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Sokka." She really didn't. The only time he'd ever said anything to her about boys had been when she was eleven and had seen Aulka and Lutak kissing behind their gran's igloo. She hadn't listened to anything he'd said then, either.
"That time you saw Aulka and Lutak!" he shouted. "I told you everything you need to know right then!"
Katara stared. "You mean that thing about how kissing boys gives you arctic fleas?" she asked. "Or the thing about how letting a boy touch me in any way meant my hair would fall out?"
Behind her, Lee – Zuko, snickered.
"No!" howled Sokka. "You're not supposed to go near boys! Ever!"
"But you're allowed to kiss Suki all you want?" she asked him. She'd seen that. He'd been all over Suki back at Ba Sing Se.
"That's totally different," Sokka objected.
"How?"
"Suki's not going to try to use me and turn me into her slave to . . . um . . . do her bidding," he rapidly improvised. Katara was pretty sure he'd been planning to say something to do with sex, but thought he was keeping her innocence intact or something by not saying that. "And then dump me like yesterday's stewed sea prunes!"
"How-"
She didn't even get to ask why he would say that, and he answered the question anyhow. "That's what all boys want! I know that!"
"Because you're a boy?" Katara asked, wondering if he was really walking into this one.
"Yes!"
"Does that mean you're planning to make Suki your sex slave and then dump her like yesterday's sea prunes?" she asked him. Zuko was making snorting noises behind her, and when she hazarded a quick glance back, saw he was trying not to laugh.
"What? No! That's – Don't twist my words!" shouted Sokka.
"Anyhow," Katara said glibly, grabbing Zuko's hand and pulling him to his feet to follow her, "L – Zuko and I have already slept together."
When Sokka started to foam at the mouth again, Katara shook her head. Sokka was too easy.
More Madness
Zuko was grateful that Katara had forgiven him for lying to her, both literally and by omission. He was even more grateful that she was willing to sneak off for private time away from hysterical older brothers, irritating earthbenders and interfering uncles.
The fact that he got to see her every morning at breakfast, got to train with her (she was as formidable as his sister and even less predictable with her element, as he'd never fought a waterbender before), got to help her make dinner and kiss her every day, it all added up to a tremendous sense of happiness on his part.
Not that he wasn't planning everything he could do once Uncle had taken his rightful throne and Zuko had the royal coffers at his disposal. The thought of being able to dress Katara in Fire Nation clothes that were in her Water Tribe blue shades was a very appealing one. Zuko was lost in a daydream when Aang found him. "Zuko?" asked the Avatar.
"Weren't you supposed to be training with Uncle?" he asked the boy.
Aang nodded, looking morose. "He said that until I was willing and able to concentrate he couldn't teach me anything."
Something about how Aang said it caught Zuko's attention. "Why can't you concentrate, Aang?" he asked.
"Because you took Katara away from me! She's mine!" the kid yelled. A distinct whining tone underlaid the hissy fit.
Zuko just stared. This was the almighty Avatar? The boy who had managed to singlehandedly destroy twelve Fire Nation Navy ships then been possessed by the Spirit of the Ocean to destroy the rest of the fleet with barely a thought? "How did I take her away from you?" he asked. "Katara's the one who made a choice. I didn't even know she was travelling with you."
"How do I know that," Aang said resentfully. "You probably did this just so that you could mess up my concentration and stuff."
Zuko shook his head in disbelief. "I fell in love with Katara and tried to woo her with bad poetry and stuff because I was trying to break your concentration?"
"Yes!" Aang declared. "Anyhow, Katara should be with me!"
Sokka, who had a positive gift for turning up where he wasn't wanted, popped out of the stonework and said, "You tell 'im Aang!"
"She knows what it's like to be the last bender of her kind, she was the last waterbender and the South Pole, and I'm the last airbender!"
"Right!" Sokka cheered his bald friend on.
Zuko felt his jaw drop open at the display. He also couldn't help but notice Toph chivvying the others over to watch. Suddenly he felt like he had a headache coming on. "That's not a good basis for a relationship."
"Yeah, well, Katara takes care of me when I get sick and she likes the necklace I made for her so she could wear something different than her regular one when she gets tired of it and she likes to go penguin sledding! Can you say you know her better?"
Don't get involved, don't get involved – "She and I like the same scrolls and I took care of her when she was sick and got her the waterskin she likes so much and wears all the time," Zuko snapped back. "Also," he added, "I'm a prince."
"Well, I'm the Avatar," Aang replied. Which did trump prince, Zuko had to admit.
That was when Sokka spoke up. "Well, we know Aang's one of the good guys. He always has been. Unlike you."
"I've changed," Zuko gritted out. "Anyhow, isn't it up to Katara to decide whether she wants someone her own age or a child?"
Before Aang could react to that, Sokka had reacted. "Psht. Aang's being a kid is better anyhow. He won't have any bad urges to molest my sister. By the time he's old enough to, I'll convince her to break up with him anyhow."
Aang turned to Sokka while Zuko's jaw hit the floor again. "I thought you wanted me with Katara!" he said, turning big, hurt eyes on Sokka. "What do you mean by urges anyhow?"
Sokka, as was only right, looked very uncomfortable all of a sudden. "I . . . you . . . you know," he said to Aang. "Like . . . boy-girl stuff."
"You mean, sex?" Zuko said, dryly. No wonder Katara had called her brother an idiot savant.
"What's sex?" chorused the Duke and Aang at once.
Toph and Teo burst into raucous laughter while Sokka and Haru turned bright red. Zuko fled the scene when his uncle appeared, cheerfully informing the boys that the lessons he had imparted to Zuko over the last three years could stand to be taught to them.
"You must understand, young ones, that a man is like a sword, and a woman a sheathe . . ."
As he scurried into the depths of the temple in a desperate bid to be anywhere but next to that lecture, he took back all his earlier thoughts of pleasure at sharing living space with Katara. Then she surprised him with a kissing ambush in the halls and he decided that all he had to do was make sure that Sokka and Aang were never allowed anywhere near his or Katara's rooms at the palace. Maybe even someday his and Katara's rooms.
Masters and Madness
Katara was huffing in utter irritation with Aang over this. First he'd refused to train with Iroh, even though the man was clearly a brilliant firebender and had trained Zuko to be a brilliant bender. Then he'd constantly complained about Zuko taking away 'his' girl, which had led to a distrust that would have been rational, if only the reason behind it were. It was one thing to mistrust someone who had been chasing you and trying to hand you over to your nemesis for months because of said chasing.
It was quite another to mistrust him because you were upset your crush had picked him over you.
She'd tried to be understanding. She knew that Aang had grown up in a temple with no parents and no girls and hadn't had all that much instruction on matters relating to how men and women interacted. She knew he was in the throes of puppy love for her, and that he had a certain ego problem relating to his being the Avatar. Enough was enough, however.
He'd run away after Toph had mentioned the idea of finding the original firebending masters to teach him firebending, the same way she'd learned earthbending from the badger-moles. So he'd taken off and left them all behind, including Appa, dismayed that he would do such a thing.
She and Zuko had set off to catch up with Aang and bring him back if they had to hogtie him and drag him. When they landed, Zuko stared around, saying, "I don't believe it. Uncle once talked about the Sun Warriors, but . . . this is one of their temples."
"Let's go, then. Hopefully we can find Aang quickly."
As luck would have it, they ran into a trap, and Katara found herself stuck in a sort of metal cage. She sighed in annoyance. "Go get Aang," she said to Zuko. "It'll be easier to get me out of this if we're all able to work together."
"Are you sure?" he asked, looking at her doubtfully.
Katara reached through the gaps in the bars to cup a hand around Zuko's cheek, and found herself shivering a little, despite the situation, when he kissed her palm. "I'll be fine," she reassured him. "Just don't take too long, okay?"
"I won't," he promised, then hurried off.
He didn't come back.
Hours later, Katara was very worried and starting to become positively terrified something had happened to both boys. It was a very long night.
The next day, a bunch of strange men she'd never seen before came tramping along, got her out of the cage and practically frogmarched her over to the temple. "Katara!" Zuko shouted as she came into view, "You're okay!"
The men let her go, and Katara rushed to him, pulling both him and Aang into a hug. "I'm so glad you're both okay," she told them. "When you didn't come back I was worried something had happened."
Aang was almost glowing with excitement. "Something did happen, Katara," he said. "Look!" then he pointed at the top of the island's mountain. To Katara's amazement, two dragons emerged. One blue and one red. They came flying over, their long bodies spiralling around each other. She didn't know what impulse moved her, but she stepped forward with Zuko close beside her. Suddenly both dragons turned and hurtled straight towards them, landing and walking toward the couple. Katara stared, hypnotised, into the eyes of the blue dragon. A series of images, of dragons in the rivers and lakes, of sinuous bodies meant as much for water as for air, filled her mind. Something primal rose up in her.
She was barely aware of her body climbing onto the blue dragon, as Zuko climbed onto the red one. Katara was fiercely aware of her mate and equal beside her, a dragon of the hot air of the volcano, balanced by her, a dragon of the seas and lightning. A balance of cold and hot, fire and water, the familiar and the foreign. That was them.
Then they landed and Katara found herself again herself.
Somehow it only seemed right when the Sun Warriors declared that she and Zuko had been declared mates by the two dragons.
The moment was only made better when Aang regretfully gave them his blessing.
Then the moment ended. "If you hurt Katara, I'll make you eat one of Sokka's socks," Aang threatened.
"Aang," Zuko said, clearly unsure of what to say.
Katara wasn't unsure in the slightest. "Aang, don't you threaten Zuko like that. Telling him you'll feed him to a squid-shark is plenty enough. There's no need to bring Sokka's socks into it."
Zuko stared at them both and Katara grinned. It was his turn to do the laundry and he would learn. Oh, how he would learn.
When will the madness end?
Zuko was getting a little disturbed by everything. Aang had come back from the dragons' island deeply upset by the two animals' declaration, through the Sun Warriors, that Zuko and Katara were soul mates, or some such nonsense.
It wasn't helped by the fact that Katara seemed to have developed a rather strong attachment to the idea herself and was making wedding plans. As much as he was in love with her, it all felt very fast. Meanwhile, Sokka was accusing him of arranging for Katara's 'brainwashing' in order to sneak his way into everyone's good graces.
Sokka was why he'd wound up going on that crazy mission to break the Water Tribe siblings' father out of the Boiling Rock. Now he was travelling back to the temple, Sokka having decided he wasn't too bad, with Katara waiting at the other end of the trip. He wouldn't mind, per se, but he suspected her father might take exception to his daughter being that determined to marry the expatriate and banished prince of the same nation that had killed his wife. Also, Sokka was still convinced the pair had been a great deal more intimate than they had. It was all going to come back to bite him somewhere deeply uncomfortable.
"You seem very tense," Hakoda observed.
Zuko looked at him and decided that he'd risk being tossed over the side of the bison now, rather than have the man be surprised by Katara's current overreaction later. "It's complicated," he said. "But I suppose I'd better tell you now. I mean, the sheer anxiety about whether or not you'll skin me alive or just toss me over the edge when you find out is nearly as bad as whichever you pick."
"That doesn't fill me with confidence," Hakoda told him dryly.
So he took a deep breath and told the man everything, from how he and Katara met, to his chasing the Avatar all those months, to his denial about Katara's friendship with Aang and all the way up to her determination to believe that they were now effectively engaged. "So you see," he finished, "I just figured I'd better tell you before she starts talking about flower arrangements and combined marriage ceremonies again, and Sokka starts on about how he doesn't see the point since it's too late to save her reputation, which it isn't."
The man just stared for several long seconds until Zuko was starting to feel very nervous about everything. Finally, the man shook his head and sighed. "I always told Kya that letting Katara spend time with Oogala would have consequences."
"Sir?" Zuko asked as respectfully as he could. He didn't want to upset his girlfriend's father.
The man sighed. "Oogala was one of the women in our village. She had a tendency to have a rather . . . optimistic view of life. She told a lot of romantic stories to the children about princesses, true love, soulmates and fate. Katara can be very practical, but at heart she's a romantic, and she ate those stories right up."
"I love her," Zuko said, "I really do, it's just . . ."
Hakoda sighed. "I have to tell you, I'm conflicted on this. On the one hand, I'm her father and I really want to just bash your head in for going anywhere near my little girl. On the other hand, you seem like a nice young man and exactly the kind of person I would want her to choose."
"I . . . thank you," said the firebender humbly.
"I'll think about this," Hakoda promised him. "It has to be handled carefully, because if I appear too much against you both being together, she'll find a way to get you both married behind my back, but I don't want to be the cause of her unhappiness, either."
Zuko nodded, saying nothing.
Naturally, by the time they landed, Sokka had told Hakoda all his suspicions of how intimate Katara and Zuko really were, which were all lies. Horrible lies, mostly because Zuko badly wished they had been that intimate, but they really hadn't.
Even more to be expected was that Katara greeted him by wrapping herself pointedly around him and kissing him. Zuko was a teenager; he could hardly be indifferent to his beautiful girlfriend wriggling against him as she french-kissed him.
When they broke apart, she finally spotted her father. "Do I at least get a 'hello'?" he asked.
"Dad!" she cried, and leapt at him, wrapping herself around her father just as thoroughly, if with a completely different kind of affection. She pulled away, smiled, and said, "I'm so glad you're getting along with Zuko. I really wanted to be sure I could have your help when I talked Aruak into working with a fire sage so that the ceremony will bless us under both Agni and Tui and La." She eagerly grabbed a pile of parchment and shoved it under her father's nose. "There's these things called 'bridesmaids' in the Fire Nation and I was thinking that we needed to arrange for purple dresses for mine to show the union of fire and water by having the mix of red and blue."
Zuko turned to sneak away, but was blocked by a pillar of stone rearing up out of nowhere. "Oh, no you don't," said Toph.
"We had to put up with it the whole time you and Sokka were gone," Haru added. "You're not going anywhere."
"Zuko!" came Katara's voice, overriding her father's like a tsunami bearing down on the shore. "What do you think about wearing purple for the wedding?"
"Make. Her. Stop," grated out Toph.
Zuko sighed and went to his doom. He wasn't comforted in the slightest by the bewildered look on Hakoda's face.
A conclusion of sorts
Katara had, quite graciously she thought, agreed to wait until the war was over to talk about marrying Zuko.
Then, because it made sense, she put it off because he was still getting used to being Fire Lord and didn't need to add complications.
Then she agreed to let him put it off because of the economic and social crisis that followed the war, because he felt it would look terrible to the people if he was having lavish ceremonies while his people were struggling to get through each day.
Then she let him put it off because people had to be totally used to the idea of getting a Water Tribeswoman as their Fire Lady.
They had a loud argument about it that night, which he won, but it left her wondering if he actually wanted to marry her. He was attentive, bought her anything she so much as looked at, wrote her bad poetry, sparred with her, dragged her into his bedroom for antics that sometimes left her blushing if she so much as thought about them and had announced that he wasn't going to look anywhere else for a wife as long as he had Katara.
But he kept putting the actual wedding off.
It was while she was looking through the library at the palace for something completely different that she stumbled onto her solution and her ultimatum.
That night, lying in his bed, gasping for breath from the things he'd just done with his mouth, she asked him. "Zuko?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you remember that time we got . . . possessed or whatever by the dragons on the Sun Warriors' island?"
He turned to her, frowning a little, and said, "How could I forget? Why?"
"I was looking around in the library this morning and I found something . . . interesting," she told him. "Apparently, a long time ago, a fire lord would take his wife to be tested by dragons. If she passed, the marriage would be considered valid. If she didn't, it would be nullified. Actually, sometimes a fire lord would go there instead of having a wedding and it would be considered a valid marriage if she was accepted."
Zuko make have been many things, but he wasn't slow on the uptake. "Are you saying that you want me to tell people we got married in some ancient ceremony that no one considers valid anymore?"
"I'm saying that we're already married if you want to be, Zuko." Katara pressed her lips together briefly, then fixed him with a look. "It's your traditions that make us married. We could announce it tomorrow and start planning a wedding." She heard her voice tremble in spite of herself. "Do . . . do you want to marry me, or are we just . . . just . . ." she didn't even know how to put it.
He looked horrified, and said, "You thought I didn't want to marry you? I do! I just . . . I wanted to be sure you were sure. I wanted to be sure we weren't rushing into things or-"
"So, we will?"
He smiled. "I'll talk to the fire sages tomorrow, and we'll tell the people that you're as good as Fire Lady already."
Katara felt a grin stretch across her lips. "I'll write home. Let dad know he can stop making excuses to Arnook about us living together without being married." She let her grin turn wicked and added, "What do you think about purple for our wedding clothes? Ming Tsu got married in purple."
The terrified look Zuko gave her sent her into spasms of laughter. "You were doing that deliberately at the Western Temple, weren't you?" he demanded.
"You should see your face!" she crowed.
He just grumbled and pulled her into his arms. "I need to thank the former Private Wei," he said.
"Why's that?" Katara asked, curious.
Zuko smiled. "If he hadn't eaten all our salted fish in a fit of gluttony, my ship would never have needed to stop on Kyoshi for supplies. I never would have met a pretty girl in blue if it weren't for him being stupid."
Katara smiled back. "It's funny how things work out, sometimes."