Disclaimer: Need I say more? Didn't think so.
She had an awful sense of balance. It seemed no matter what she carried, she would spill it, she would drop it, it would slip out of her hands. Whether it was a book, a drink, a bag, or her keys. Or the heavy box filled with comic books the moment it hovered over Iroh's feet.
Iroh cringed, and Katara gasped.
"Oh, Iroh, I am so sorry!" She scrambled to lift the box of his throbbing toes. He forced himself to relax the muscles in his face into his usual smile.
"Oh, it's nothing, Miss Katara. I'll be fine."
Mr. Pakku had just gotten the shipment of comic books, and Zuko and his Uncle Iroh had agreed to help bring them in. Iroh was a somewhat old man, about as old as Mr. Pakku, a strong believer in proverbs, a great lover of tea, and a little shorter and a lot rounder than Zuko. He was also much calmer than his nephew. More patience.
While Iroh and Katara were putting those boxes away, Aang was outside with Zuko, picking up their boxes. Katara's friend Aang had happily agreed to come help out.
Aang was a thin, bald teenager about 19, and wore an orange robe. It was one of those rebellious teenage statements, going well with the blue arrow tattoos that twisted along his limbs and along his head.
He was also gay.
And Zuko felt very uncomfortable around him, because all he was wearing was a robe. Opened down the navel. And, to top it all off, Aang was apparently flirting with him, badly, using terrible pick-up lines that would never work.
"Hey Zuko. You tired? Cause you've been running through my mind all day."
Zuko sighed, and rolled his eyes, hefting a box of comic books on his shoulder.
"Aang, you've only known me two hours. At the most. And, for the thousandth time. I'm not interested."
Aang waggled his eyebrows. "You mean, you aren't interested yet."
Zuko slammed the box down on one of the tables.
"Aang. I am not interested now. I've never been interested. I'm not going to be interested in the future. I'm not gay. Stop hitting on me."
Aang giggled at him. Or at least, what Zuko considered a giggle.
"Alright." Zuko gaped at him.
"Alright? For the past two hours you have been hitting on me. Two. Hours. And all I had to do was tell you I had no intentions of ever changing my sexual preferences?" Aang nodded.
"It was my plan to figure out what kind of guy you were. Now I know why Katara likes you."
Zuko blinked.
"Huh?"
Aang rolled his eyes, and set his box down next to Zuko's. "She likes you. Like, likes you likes you." They leaned against the edge of the table.
"I was making sure you were a good guy first before I let you get into a serious relationship with Katara. She's been hurt before, believe it or not." Aang shook his head. "Somehow, she just finds the most terrible guys to get into a relationship with."
Zuko turned his head to look at him. "Really?"
"Oh yeah. First there was Haru. He was a nice guy. Very nice, long hair, hints of a mustache, and a great body. I think he was a bodybuilder, or a football player. Whew." Zuko rolled his eyes.
"So anyway, when Katara met Haru at a little coffee shop, they hit it off right away. Like I said, he was a great guy, very likeable. They dated for a while. Sokka got all up in their business, but he liked Haru, and he was a bit pre-occupied with Suki, his girlfriend, so he didn't really harass them as much as he should have. Katara met his mom. And that was when the trouble started."
Zuko raised his remaining eyebrow. "Oh?"
"It turns out; Haru had been living with his mom, just scraping by, because his dad was gone. His dad was gone because his dad was in jail. And his dad was in jail because he had stolen some jewelry for an old man."
Zuko lowered his eyebrow and wrinkled his forehead. "Stealing jewelry...for an old man? I could see stealing for a woman he was cheating on his wife with, but an old man?"
Aang continued. "See, apparently the old man had asked Haru's dad to get into 'his' house to get a necklace he had been saving for some relative's birthday. Of course, Haru's dad was a really nice guy, a really naive guy, and had accepted."
Zuko gave Aang a confused look. "Why was he naive for helping an old man?"
"He was naive because the man did not give him a key, requested he do it in the middle of the night, as silently as possible, and not to allow anyone to see him."
The confusion was immediately cleared up. "Ah. Yeah. That is kind of naive."
"So, anyway, his dad did as the man asked. No one saw him. The man thanked him, and Haru's dad went off on his way, glad he could help. But, the family he stole from had noticed the absence of the necklace—which was a precious family heirloom, by the way—and his father had left clear evidence he had been there, thinking 'it's just the old man's house, no harm done'. They called the cops, and the item he had left was enough evidence against him, he got sent to jail.
So then Haru tells Katara his father was wrongly accused, that the judge was corrupt, the jury was prejudiced. So he asked her to help him bust him out. And she did."
"Really?" Zuko was unconvinced.
Aang nodded. "Oh yeah! And then, you know what happens? After they bust out his dad, he leaves. If the cops found out who did it, Katara could've been sent to jail as an accomplice. He didn't even thank her, or say goodbye. He and his family just left. She knocked on the door one day, and they were gone."
"That's terrible!"
Aang sighed. "The next guy was much worse. His name was Jet. He seemed awesome. He was smooth, handsome, sexy, and had a really great upper body. Very good fashion sense. He got the rugged hero down to a tee." Zuko rolled his eyes. "He was the leader of a gang, though. The Freedom Fighters. They didn't do any serious stuff, not that we knew of."
"But they got involved in a turf war with a gang called the Pyros. The Pyros wasn't a very nice gang, not nearly as cool as Jet's gang. They did bad things. Worse than what most gangs did—they did a lot of things with fire. Arsonists, every one of them. Jet didn't like arsonists; his home burned down, and his parents were killed in the fire. He learned later the fire was purposefully set. Suddenly, this had become personal, and the war started to get nasty. Jet started to get nasty. They began doing things they never did before. Stealing, mugging, vandalizing. All to get to the Pyros' gang members. They even mugged an old man who just so happened to be passing through, just so happened to wear clothing the same color the Pyros wore. " Aang stared at the floor.
"Then, Jet asked Katara to do something he shouldn't have considered doing, shouldn't have considered asking Katara to help with. Of course, Katara didn't know what his true intentions were."
Zuko frowned. "What were they going to do?" Aang looked up at Zuko.
"Jet was going to set fire to the apartment the family members of the Pyros' lived in. All of them. The mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters. The children. He told Katara that they needed the old clothes for the children's center; they needed the rags because they were cleaning out their homes. She didn't know they were going to soak the cloth in gasoline. She didn't know they were going to plant them in the apartments. She didn't know they were going to light it while they were sleeping, and burn down the building, effectively getting rid of the Pyros for good. Give the arsonists a taste of their own medicine."
"What happened?" Zuko asked.
"Sokka knew. He knew what Jet was doing. See, he didn't like Jet from the start. He was suspicious of anyone who dated his little sister. He was suspicious of me for just hanging out with Katara until he learned I was gay. But Sokka knew Jet wasn't as good-intentioned as he made himself out to be. It wasn't just about 'keeping people from being hurt by the Pyros'. Jet was much too vicious for that. So Sokka went to the apartments, and he got everyone out before they lit the fires. Everyone was safely out of the building before it went up in flames."
"That's good." Aang nodded. "Yeah. No kidding." They sat in silence for a while.
"So…what happened to Jet?" Aang chuckled. Zuko decided Aang didn't giggle, he chuckled.
"Well, Katara was very pissed at Jet, and felt very hurt by Jet. She had trusted him, and from the very beginning he had been lying to her to get what he wanted. Last I had seen he had been black and blue all over, and frozen to the side of a building. The cops had come by, picked him up, and dumped him in jail."
Zuko was suddenly had more respect and a little more fear for and of Katara than he previously did. How in the world could someone freeze someone to the side of a building?
"Nice." Aang chuckled.
"I think you mean ice." Zuko punched his shoulder.
"That, was a terrible joke."
"Hey!" Zuko looked up to see Katara and Iroh standing in front of the table they were sitting on.
A smile was stretched over Katara's face where it usually was.
"C'mon! We still have a few boxes to unload!"
As Aang and Iroh followed her out, Zuko took a little longer, spending some time watching her.
How does she go on?
Whew. That was a long chapter with lots of explaining and lots of sympathy gathering for Katara. It was a bitch to write. I had some trouble figuring equivalents for Haru's father. But I supposed it worked. It has been so long since I last updated this—since 8/7/09. Eugh. Thank you my Good and Faithful who stay with me! I love you! Please Review!