Warning: Death of Character. Nothing graphic, just sad.


Katara thought back to when Zuko had joined up with the party. It was in Ba Sing Se, shortly after Aang had entered the Avatar State and gotten Appa back. Aang was exercising the bison, getting him used to flying again after a few weeks being hobbled. Sokka was sampling the foods the vendors were offering and Toph was with Aang while Katara was left to her own devices.

"Perfume, miss? How about this exquisite headpiece? Friends of the Avatar get fifty percent discounts on everything in stock!" Though tempting, Katara shook her head at the offers of finery and just wandered about the town's center.

Suddenly, there was a loud crack! over by the Earthbending school nearby. Everyone dropped everything and headed over there, Katara included.

An elderly man was lying on the ground, a nasty bruise forming on his head. Katara gasped and pushed her way through the throng of bodies. It was the man that powerful Firebender had hit all those weeks back at the deserted village.

Katara saw Zuko kneeling next to him, feeling for a pulse and checking his breathing. It was in vain though; the man had died when a boulder from the bending school had hit him in the chest.

Katara crept close to Zuko. She could see his hands shaking from the anger and emotions he was bottling up.

"Zuko?" The exiled prince spun around, shocked to hear her voice.

"Leave," he muttered when he realized it was Katara. Katara knelt down by him.

"Zuko, he's gone." Zuko snorted.

"You think I don't know that? Leave me." He turned back to his uncle's body. Katara lingered a little longer, then left.

That night, Katara had related what had happened to her companions. Aang seemed sorry for Zuko, as did Toph, but she said it always stinks to lose someone you obviously care about. Sokka seemed impassive, even though Katara reminded him it was the same man who had threatened Zhao if he killed the Moon Spirit. ("Didn't help, did it?")

"What did Zuko do?" Aang asked, getting some more dinner. Katara shrugged.

"He seemed ready to break. I went over to him, but he told me to leave, so I did." Katara looked over at Momo and took the peach he had been ready to eat away. "That's my peach, Momo." The lemur hissed and took Sokka's peach instead.

"Ya know, this Zuko guy doesn't seem as bad as you three say he is," Toph commented. "He helped attack that creepy lady with the machine, seemed genuinely upset when she attacked that man, and from what you said, Katara, is taking his death very seriously. And he doesn't seem to be chasing us," she added.

Sokka had something to say about that, but stopped at the sound of a familiar voice around the corner of the dining room in the inn they were staying at until something could be figured out about the lunar eclipse coming and the Fire Nation.

"I need a room." Everyone hushed and focused on what Zuko was saying in the other room to the innkeeper. He sounded as if he had been…crying?

"I'm sorry, but I'm not allowed to rent any rooms until the Avatar leaves Ba Sing Se. You'll have to find some place else."

"This is the only inn with vacancy."

"Not while the Avatar is here it's not. Sorry." The innkeeper went back to whatever he was doing. Katara sat still as she heard Zuko's footsteps walk towards the door; suddenly, she leapt up.

"Excuse me, Li? He's…he's with us," Katara stammered. She ignored the stares of Zuko and her traveling companions.

"Why didn't he say so?" Li asked suspiciously.

"We…we had told him to meet at another inn, but this one had vacancy. I forgot to tell him this afternoon when I met him near the school," she replied. Why the heck am I doing this? she asked herself.

"I saw them whispering when that old guy got whacked," one of the current patrons called. Li looked at Zuko, then nodded.

"Fine. You can stay."

From then on, the exiled prince had been traveling with them, helping them, teaching Aang what he knew about Firebending, and, finally, attacking his father.

And Katara didn't think he was so bad anymore.


I was going to wait until I had a good title, but I just had to post it. This one isn't lyric-oriented. (Btw, I own nothing but these drabbles and oneshots.)