A/N: The Following is rated S; for singing.
It contains dialog from a variety of episodes in Season 2.
Reader discretion is advised.
"Avatar Day"
Winter, year 10 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai
"Oy! Ronin! Stop!"
Zuko stopped, knuckles of his clenched fists cracking with the force of his fury.
I have had enough of this, he fumed. Enough of this WHOLE kingdom! The millet is gone, the sake is gone, my patience… so VERY GONE! What in the darkest PITS of Jigoku-
He stood there fuming as three samurai in green and gold erupted from an ornate carriage that had passed him by only moments ago. Passed him by, then screeched to a halt in the middle of the road.
The road from Haiya had, until this point at least, not been difficult. It had sloped around the stream it continued to follow, with little change in elevation, as Zuko had continued to make his way south. The hardpacked tan clay of the badlands had just the day before given way to rich browns and wintergreens of a more fertile region. Zuko's spirits had actually lifted briefly when a sharp southern gust had brought the scent of ocean salt to his nose.
Then THIS had happened.
The three samurai surrounded him and waited, hands on their sword hilts, as a short portly man with the long mustaches earthers favored exited the carriage at a more sedate pace. He took his time, settling his robes, pointedly ignoring everything.
After he had let whatever he thought passed for "tension" develop he finally addressed Zuko. "I suppose you know what you did wrong?" he said in a slow tone, like curdled lard.
"No," Zuko said.
"Really? I should have thought it was quite obvious?" the man drawled, gesturing expansively at the carriage he had exited.
Zuko was now genuinely confused. What did the carriage have to do with anything? Some earther custom perhaps?
"The seal?" the man continued, his eyes twinkling condescension.
Zuko narrowed his eye at the gaudy ostrich-horse drawn thing and, after a beat, actually did pick out the family Mon, a dragonfly in flight, right below the green circle and square of the Earth-King.
"Hogosha," Zuko said, dredging the name up from his childhood studies of his enemies, and the little man puffed up proudly at being recognized. "Vassal of Yoritomo," Zuko continued, causing the man to deflate slightly. "A minor house… of no renown."
The man bristled.
"I did not mean the family mon! The Earth-King! The Earth-King's seal is on my carriage!" His voice grew sly. "And you didn't bow. I am the tax collector for this province and neither I, nor the Earth-King, will tolerate your disrespect.
Ridiculous. Who in Akodo's name has time to be bowing to a nobody official of a nowhere province? Maybe the carriage of a family head, or a shogun perhaps, but…
"Perhaps," the Hogosha tax man said, "if you were to get on all fours, apologize for your rudeness, and kiss my shoe-" he pushed a soft looking gold slipper out from underneath his long robes- "then perhaps I might be persuaded to let this slide."
Zuko exhaled deeply and really considered the situation he found himself in. How had he come to this? Here he stood, a ragged looking ronin in a tattered green kimono, surrounded by three trained ji-samurai and a smirking little pustule of a man who apparently got his jollies by humiliating people. He, of the blood of Akodo, Lord of Honor, being asked to prostrate himself in the dirt so that an honorless man might have a story to tell the next person who found themselves trapped in a conversation with him.
Well… that just about does IT. Zuko had had enough. He was done. Done with the whole flaming Earth-Kingdom.
"I think there has been a mistake here," Zuko said. He tried for genial, imagining he was his uncle.
"Ah! Finally, he understands!" The tax collector said, rolling his eyes skyward once more.
"Yes," Zuko said with a nod. "I see where we have made our mistakes."
"Yes, and- wait… 'we'?"
"Indeed. I did not see the Earth-King's seal and you-" Zuko's eye fell on the man like a hammer strike, causing everyone around him to take an unconscious step back- "you assumed that I… am from the Earth-Kingdom."
The little man's eyes widened in horror and the ji-samurai behind Zuko began to draw his blade.
He didn't quite make it.
Zuko seemed to fall backwards towards the ground but, at the last moment, caught himself on his hands and with a shout he bent fire from his feet in a wide spinning circle, forcing the three attackers back. With a single motion he regained his feet, bent his sword of fire into his hand and then buried it in the chest of a very surprised looking Mantis samurai.
The little Hogosha tax collector let out a horrified shriek and started running back to his carriage. Zuko dodged a sword strike from another of the samurai and sent a slashing wave of fire at the ostrich-horse's harness, setting the beasts free and scaring them away at the same time. That done he turned his entire focus on the two remaining actual threats.
Not that they were terribly dangerous, not when he was firebending.
He left the smoking corpses of the three ji-samurai behind him as he advanced on the little quivering man who was attempting to hide, head covered by his robes, under his carriage. Zuko grabbed his ankle and flung him bodily back into the road. One of his golden shoes flipped off and into the bushes, twinkling.
"So, you see your mistake?" Zuko said, back to faux pleasantness.
"Oh spirits, oh spirits, oh spirits," the little man whimpered.
"Oh good, I'm glad," Zuko said, pretending he'd been answered coherently. "Now, here is where I make my offer. There will be no kissing of shoes, no petty demands for respect. You may either commit seppuku-" the man squeaked- "or I can hang you naked from… THAT tree," Zuko said, picking one at random.
"Please, please I'll give you anything, anything you want. PLEASE."
"Thanks for your contribution to the war effort," Zuko snarled, his patience for the game boiled away in an instant in his fury at the man's cowardice. "I guess it's the tree then." With that he struck the man in the temple, and with a hollow sounding THUNK his eyes rolled back in his head.
Zuko, still a man of his word despite everything else, suspended the man upside-down by his ankles from a nearby tree. If the spirits favored him someone would happen by and cut him down. Then he could try and explain how it was that he had come to be naked and tied up in a tree that had the word "coward" carved into it with his own wakizashi.
Zuko gave him even odds that he'd be dead from exposure before that happened though.
The three expired ji-samurai got a decent cremation and the ritual words Zuko knew for earth samurai. A samurai did not always get to pick his lord and they had died with honor. That their master had had no honor of his own was regrettable.
That done Zuko decided to examine the contents of the carriage and there, seated on the passenger seat, where Zuko assumed the man had been playing with it, was a small lockbox full of gold.
Well, he DID say I could have anything I want, Zuko thought with a grin.
/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\
Late Winter, Year 10 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai
Zuko was in a much better mood.
There had finally been villages, one not even a half-day's march from where he had left the torched remains of the tax collector's carriage. Now he had better boots, he had rice, he had an extra (size large) waterskin that was specifically for sake, and he still had what would have easily been an infantry battalion's monthly pay. But best of all…
He had reached the sea.
He had missed it. The salt sparking in his nose, the crashing thunder of the waves. He inhaled deeply and when he closed his eyes he could almost believe he was back on his ship, rising and falling with the waves, headed for the next port.
His eye snapped open as a particularly sharp gust of wind hit him and shook off the daydream. It did him no good to dwell on things past. Especially not while he was mildly drunk and standing at the edge of a cliff. The Sun had fallen right out of the sky for him, and he just needed to carry on.
So, he did.
He turned right and moved along, having already decided to head west from there, towards the city of Chin, where he'd been told that there was to be some sort of festival taking place.
He just hoped there would be more sake.
/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\
"You can't be serious," Zuko said, the ghost of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
"Serious as the Stone, Mr. Ronin! We celebrate Avatar Day every year by burning statues of 'em! We've even got the new one this year! It's something to do with Avatar Kyoshi murdering a great warlord that our city is named for… or something." The shopkeeper shrugged. "All I really know is that it's great for business… and tourism!"
Zuko looked around wonderingly at the festively arrayed town of Chin. "THIS might just be my new favorite place," he said grinning fiercely.
That night the entire village erupted in celebrations as the three statues of the Avatars (Kyoshi, Roku, and Aang) were wheeled out into a central plaza. They wouldn't be burned until the next day, but the citizens of Chin took it in turns drinking and hurling insults at the figures, an activity that Zuko found he excelled at after a few drinks of his own. There was free food, dancing, and even an exceptionally catchy Avatar Day song, very simply named "Down with the Avatar." Most of its lyrics were vulgar and extremely insulting and there was already a verse dedicated to Aang.
"You bald headed fool!
You think you're so cool!
But you're nothing but cowardly trash!"
The chorus was just the title "Down with the Avatar" repeated many times and at great and raucous volume. While not very imaginative, lyrically speaking, it managed to get itself lodged in one's head with the greatest of ease. After his tenth bottle of sake Zuko called it a night and promptly passed out in an alleyway, still humming the tune, and tremendously pleased with the attitude of the local population.
He awoke late, and after a moment of gathering his wits, he staggered back to the town square so as to not miss the burning ceremony. Not to mention the drinking and feasting that would recommence as well.
He arrived just in time to see the torchbearer lob his ceremonial flame at the statue of Aang, hitting it in the face. The crowd exploded in cheers and from the back, Zuko cheered with them.
I could LIVE here, he thought to himself, both fists still in the air as the throng cheered. They've got the sea, they hate the Avatar, this local brand of sake is actually pretty good… Maybe I could-
Suddenly a massive gout of water rose in front of him, extinguishing the three statues.
Oh no, Zuko thought, lowering his arms slowly. It CAN'T be…
"Hey! That Water-Tribe girl is ruining Avatar Day!" someone in the crowd in front of him shouted.
Spirits? Don't do this to me, Zuko implored silently, looking heavenward. They're giving away SAKE here.
But the spirits had apparently already made up their minds on the subject and a small yellow and orange-clad figure leapt atop the statue which had been fashioned to resemble him.
"That Water-Tribe girl is my friend!" Aang shouted.
Zuko turned around, rolling his eye.
Damnit, he thought, grabbing two enormous jugs of sake off a table as he stalked away. He's going to ruin everything! Probably try and teach them a valuable lesson about "friendship" and then be given the key to the city. Or if THAT doesn't work I'm sure some natural disaster will show up and then he'll SAVE them from it.
He pulled a cork with his teeth and drank a gulp.
Well, I don't have to watch at least.
/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\
Zuko had done his level best to remain drunk for nearly two days as he staggered his way east, away from the disappointing city of Chin. He'd spent the last night drinking everything he had left and roaring the chorus to "Down with the Avatar" as loudly as he could before he'd finally collapsed into a bush near the river he had originally followed down from the north and passed out.
When he awoke the next morning, it was to one of the worst headaches he had ever had. The gently flowing stream sounded like a massive waterfall echoing around inside the cavern that was his skull. A skull which, simultaneously, throbbed and pulsed with malignant fury to the tempo of his heartbeat.
Oddly, just at the edge of hearing, above the sound of the river and his pulsing skull, was the sound of a woman's voice singing softly and wordlessly. Whoever it was apparently had "Down with the Avatar" stuck in their head as well, and the melody seemed to soothe Zuko's battered brain.
As he tried to open his eye the Holy Sun's light punished him for his overindulgences with a new stabbing pain, forcing a soft groan from him. As he did the singing cut off abruptly.
"No! Don't stop!" he shouted hoarsely. He slapped at his coin pouch blindly and grabbed one of the large gold coins within. "I'll give you a koku if you keep singing!" he said, thrusting the coin out of the bushes where he hoped the impromptu musician could see it.
The female voice laughed softly. "I shouldn't. It's not a very nice song… but it is pretty catchy, isn't it?"
Zuko went rigid with shock; he knew that voice. Usually, it was threatening to kill him, and his hangover now became a secondary concern next to panic.
Oh, ash! I haven't shaved in months! Or bathed! I probably smell like OSTRICH-HORSE for my ancestors' sake! This is NOT how this is supposed to-
During his panicked self-recriminations, Katara had left the riverside and approached the bushes that he was now essentially hiding in.
"Are you alright in there?" she asked kindly.
Are they following ME now? Why in Akodo's name is SHE HERE!?
"Uhhhh, YES!" he babbled, still panicking. "Just… FINE. Everything is fine here! How are you?"
Don't make conversation idiot! Flee!
But Lions never retreat, and Zuko, still a Lion to his core, was unpracticed at the idea of running away.
"Are you sure?" Katara said. "Some of these bushed have thorn-" Her head came into view over the top of the bushes, her face one moment the very picture of concern, then shock, then… murderous outrage.
"Uh… Hello. Zuko here."
Idiot.
"YOU!" she screamed, and the entire stream seemed to leap from its banks at her cry.
Zuko, his hangover now completely forgotten, scrambled backwards (a tactical withdrawal, not a retreat) and away from the enraged waterbender, taking cover behind a large tree.
"I don't suppose you would believe me if I told you that this was just a coincidence?" Zuko said hopefully.
Katara's only response was a disc of ice that bisected the tree a few inches above his head.
"Guess that's a 'no'," he growled as the tree crashed to the ground. "Fine then."
He spun around the tree bending a gout of fire.
/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\
It had been a long time since Zuko had had a good bending fight against a worthy opponent. The last few months, since his fight with his sister, had probably the longest drought in over a decade. He'd always had someone to spar with, or to kill, and for a brief moment he was concerned that maybe he'd gotten rusty.
He hadn't.
His formerly alcohol battered mind snapped into focus as soon as his red flames met her flowing shield of water and ice. It felt good; like a muscle that had been locked up for a long time finally being allowed to stretch. Their fight at the North Pole might have been yesterday for the difference it seemed to make as Zuko hammered away at Katara's defenses quickly, then moved. Remaining rooted, while usually preferable in firebending, had been almost immediately been revealed to be suicide as Katara had learned a kata that allowed her to bombard an area with a massive volley of sharpened ice spears.
It won't be a quick as last time, but maybe I can still tire her out, he mused as he scrambled from one ruined wreck of a tree to another soon to be wrecked one. These kata must be exhausting.
If they were, however, Katara gave no sign. She simply continued to empty the stream at him, flooding the battlefield with ice and water.
Wait… flood the area?
Zuko reacted just in time, leaping up into an, as of yet, undamaged tree as Katara froze the entire area in a thin sheet of ice.
She almost had me! Zuko thought, his face splitting into a grin. Merciful Ancestors I MISSED this!
With a leap and a happy shout, he countered with a wide fan of fire that melted the ice at his feet, sending small puffs of steam into the air.
Which gave him an idea.
Inhaling deeply, he bent a massive stream of fire into the river, spinning back and forth to dodge whips of water as he did and slowly but surely the air filled with a thick impenetrable mist, obscuring Katara's vision.
She's phenomenal at range, but I haven't seen anything particularly impressive close up. Use that! And matching his thoughts he leapt forward to close with her.
A heartbeat later the mist he had thrown himself into had transformed into ice crystals which slashed and stung at him as Katara bent them around her in a howling blizzard. Zuko countered with heart of fire, putting as much power into it as he had ever done, melting the ice a good quarter of an inch from his skin. With a resounding crack she bent a wall of ice between the two of them, but Zuko smashed through that wall like a battleship's icebreaker, fire at his fingertips.
And then, there she was. That amazing dangerous smile on her face.
It was only by the sheerest luck that Zuko had brought up his blade of fire just as he would have run into a long sharp icicle Katara had set as a trap behind the wall. As it was the blade shattered the ice before it could do him any harm, and Katara's smile drooped slightly.
Excellent! Wonderful! Zuko thought happily. Good anticipation!
He advanced quickly, his face still contorted into a fearsome grin. He had been correct in his assessment; Katara, her face now a mask of furious concentration, was unable to bend the massive but cumbersome torrents at this close a range. Red blade met blue streams of water in a flaring intricate dance as Zuko drove her away from the stream.
Almost… there…
She surprised him, somehow bending a smaller icicle into her hand without him seeing and then flinging it at him, managing to embed it in his left shoulder. He roared in pain and used the motion to execute a small dragon's breath, which she blocked only by exhausting the rest of the water she had with her and leaping backwards.
Zuko followed her motion and brought the blade down, stopping it a scant inch from her neck, her back to a ruined tree.
They stood there a long moment glaring at each other, panting, fighting to regain their breath.
Oh, ash… NOW what am I supposed to do? Zuko thought his panic returning.
Well… the LAST time you captured her…
He had been an idiot and kissed her. He felt the functional side of his face heat and saw, to his increasing embarrassment, that she was blushing too. Apparently, she remembered that as well.
"Just kill me," she spat, "I won't be bait in your trap again!"
"…my what?"
"Don't play dumb with me! It's a trap! You- you- cut your hair and grew out a beard so you could sneak up on us! And then, when Aang shows up to help me. You can finally have him in your little Fire-Nation clutches!" She glanced around suspiciously. "You've got your cavalry nearby, or those assassin women!"
"Assassin… women?" he said flatly, still terribly confused.
Katara was not to be deterred however and as she ranted it became clear that this was something she had wanted to say for a very long time. Her words had the clipped feel of a practiced speech. "You're a terrible person, you know that? Always following us, hunting the Avatar! Trying to capture the world's last hope for peace! But what do you care? You're the Fire-Lord's son. Spreading war and violence and hatred is in your blood!" She took a breath. "And THEN as if that wasn't enough you violate me?" she snarled through gritted teeth.
"V-violate? What in the flaming pits of ASH are you talking about?!" Zuko said, growing angry as he dropped the fire sword to match her glare for glare.
"It wasn't enough you had to defeat me, AND after I saved your life, you had to- to-" she stopped, turning scarlet.
"That… THAT is what you're angry about? You think that I kissed you to try and humiliate you? To exact some sort of revenge? As though that would make up for what you did to ME!" he roared, furious.
"What I did to you?! What did I-"
"You should have let me die with HONOR!" he shouted, grabbing her by the shoulders. "It was perfect! I would have been redeemed, dying in the execution of my duty, defeated by the wo-" he cut off, shaking his head.
"That was a mistake," she said, looking away in embarrassment. "I never meant to kill you."
"Liar."
"No! I just got carried away and…" Tears began to fill her eyes. "I never wanted to hurt anybody! I just wanted you to leave us alone and…" she let out a huff, shaking off her tears and growling furiously with herself. She looked up and resumed her glare at Zuko. "What the frost are you smiling at?!" she snarled, her rage renewed.
It was just too much for Zuko and he didn't answer.
He just kissed her.
And for a moment… if only just a moment… it felt like she kissed him back.
He cut off after a few seconds at a sharp pain in his side, and when he broke away and looked down he found that she'd stabbed him. With an icicle. Again.
He looked down at the icicle, then back at Katara, then back to the icicle. Then he fell over; half from the pain at his side, half from laughter.
"You're amazing!" he laughed, grasping at the icy stub, trying, and failing, to extract it.
The look on her face was an interesting mix of bewilderment and anger as, for a long moment, she watched him try, and fail, to remove the icy stub in his abdomen. Finally settling on a glare, she dropped next to him and batted his hands away from it.
"You are an idiot," she said bending the water out of him and around her hands, which took on a light blue glow.
"You're not wrong," Zuko said.
/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\
After she had undone the damage she'd inflicted, Zuko marveling at her glowing blue hands with a wide single eye as she did so, she had risen, shouted at him NOT to follow her, and then stalked off, following the stream north.
Zuko, mind in a strange thoughtless place, took the opportunity to wash in the river, removing the mud from the now devastated riverside, the firebending char, and blood from his body. Then, after a moment of searching, he recovered his pack which, in his previously inebriated state, had ended up a few bushes downstream from where he'd eventually landed.
Still sore, and now only a little hungover, he made his way south, meeting up with the coastline again and turning east this time.
I wonder where they're headed next? He mused to himself. The first truly coherent thought he'd had since Katara had healed him. It had been habit to try to decipher the Avatar's odd travel plans when he'd still been samurai. But now it was an odd experience, being able to contemplate it leisurely, without the pressure of needing to come up with a countering plan.
She was heading north so… probably up to Omashu, he decided eventually. They will try to liberate the city and get Lord Bumi to teach the boy earthbending.
A part of him, a small but vocal part, wanted to follow them. Certainly, capturing the Avatar wouldn't do him any good anymore but killing him would certainly be enjoyable.
Though SHE'D probably have something to say about that, and a rather sappy smile formed on his face as he walked along.
Their fight had been amazing, and she'd been as deadly and lovely as he remembered. He almost felt like his old self again, like there was a purpose to his existence. Certainly, pissing off a woman and fighting her wasn't a particularly noble purpose, but you had to make do with what you had.
I can't believe she thought I meant to insult her!
That had been astounding. The idea that Zuko kissing her had been a "violation" was utterly mad. Certainly, it wasn't something he had planned and as far as he knew it wasn't common to kiss one's opponents after defeating them. But insulting… In Zuko's, admittedly limited, experience with kissing you did not kiss those you disliked or intended to insult. Being kissed was a good thing.
Maybe it's a Water-Tribe thing? On the other hand, she didn't seem to realize how insulting it was for her to SAVE me. Maybe she didn't mean it like that? Maybe…
None of it made any sense. They'd fought, he'd won, they'd shouted at each other, she had almost cried, and then, becausehe had apparently suffered brain damage at some point, he had kissed her again. Then she'd stabbed him… and then she'd healed him.
What did THAT mean?
Spirts, I need a drink, he thought, and he picked up his pace slightly, hoping there would be a village soon where he could refill his "waterskin."
But there wasn't, and so as the sun hit the horizon behind him, he found another stream running into the sea and followed in northward for a while, to keep himself off the road.
He'd found that camping by fresh water was a great deal easier. He could wash (if he was feeling like it) and boil the water in a small pot for cooking and his waterskins.
Once he'd passed south of the Swamp of Mists people would occasionally stumble across his campsite. Most often they would simply turn around after one look at his face and his katana. Less frequently they would try to rob him which never worked out well for them but had actually been tremendously helpful to Zuko. It was how he'd got his current cooking pot, and the plain bracers and shin armor he now wore, as well as much of the other sundry camping equipment he had.
He had just finished making his campfire when he heard a rustling from the foliage on the other side of the small creek.
Maybe this one will have some jerky, he mused, sighing as he came to his feet.
She didn't have jerky.
Zuko's mouth dropped open in pure shock as Katara dragged a hamper full of clothes out of the underbrush.
"You cannot be serious?" he said.
She jumped like a started fox-deer at his words and then, showing a presence of mind that caught a shocked Zuko completely off guard, she bent a coil of water out of the stream and around his leg, hoisting him into the air.
She stomped towards him and glared into his upside-down eye.
"I told you NOT to follow me!" she growled through clenched teeth.
"You went NORTH!" Zuko retorted, pointing in that direction.
Katara's mouth dropped open.
"I assumed you were going to Omashu to try and liberate the city!" Zuko shouted. "What in the Sun's name are you doing here!?"
"We were already AT Omashu! You had your assassins attack us!"
"Assassins? What assassins!? Does it look like I have assassins? Or soldiers of any kind? Ash and bone woman, I don't even have flaming pants!"
Zuko, not caring overmuch about the kinds of clothes he wore, had settled on a loose green kimono after he had invaded the Earth-Kingdom. In his upside-down state it was currently flipped up, revealing his bare legs and loin cloth as his hands were too busy making sure his sword stayed in place to worry about it.
Katara's eyes traveled upwards registering that fact and her face flushed heavily. She spun away, hiding her eyes, and releasing the bend which dropped Zuko, head first, into the stream.
"Y-you think that- that- just because you dress up like an earth peasant I'm going to believe you had nothing to do with the people chasing us?" She shouted, still covering her eyes.
Zuko dripping wet, and now very annoyed, climbed out of the river and, with a snort of fire and a bend, dried himself.
"You… you think this is a ruse?" he snarled, still steaming as he advanced on Katara. "You think I would… dress up as a peasant? Cut my topknot off as a fucking RUSE!?"
"I think you'd do anything," she said, spinning back around to face him, tone matching his immediately, "no matter how vile, debased, and evil to achieve your goals. You're Fire-Nation! It's what you DO!"
"You know NOTHING! Nothing about me, OR the Fire-Nation! You ignorant savage!" Zuko roared, face now close to hers.
"I know you are evil! You burn and loot and kill! You murdered my people, my mother! You're the savages!"
"We're at WAR! You act as though your people didn't declare war on US! And Moto Chagatai destroyed the city of Jang Hui and slaughtered unarmed peasants and children!"
"As though YOU should talk! You slaughtered a whole village! Didn't you 'Butcher'?"
Zuko was taken aback for a moment, his mind flooded with vague memories of his first brush with the madness, of red flames and a village melted to slag.
"I did," he said, voice hoarse, "And I'd do it AGAIN, murderous savages!" he finished with a furious snarl, his face twitching slightly.
"You're a monster!" Katara said, eyes going wide.
"Yes, I am! I am a MONSTER who does the necessary things that no one else will do! An example had to be made!" His fury was mounting, growing, feeding on guilt and hazy memories of screaming peasants and burning stone, multiplied a hundredfold by the look of hatred and disgust in the young woman in front of him.
If there was only one person in the world who he would rather didn't know about Matomo, it was her and his hands began to tremble in rage and shame.
You need to calm down! his uncle's voice seemed to shout from a long way away. You need to withdraw, gather yourself-
"Necessary?!" Katara shrieked. "What in the Moon's name was necessary about slaughtering an entire village?!"
"They were animals," Zuko whispered, eye going wide, unfocused. "They m-murdered, poisoned, an entire c-company of soldiers, Earth-K-kingdom samurai. Their own samurai!"
Katara's eyes grew wide, shocked.
Zuko's campfire suddenly turned crimson, bathing the clearing in eerie red light as laughter began to force its way out of his mouth. "They would HA-ha-have died for theh-heh-hem! In-n-nstead they strih-heh-heh-pped them n-naked! Heh, ha! F-f-flung them in a PIT! Throats blue, swollen, claw marks where they struggled as they DIED!"
As the word "DIED" erupted from Zuko the red fire shot skyward from his campfire, engulfing the tree canopy above.
Burn it, a voice whispered. Burn it ALL.
Oh ash! No, no nonononononononono. Not now!
"Zuko? What's…" Katara looked worried.
"Y-you n-n-need to leavvvvve," he managed to choke out, fists and jaw clenched, entire body a line of tension. "G-go! I can't… can't…"
Words stopped…
…and there was just laughter as red flames rose and swallowed his mind.
He was a flame. The whole world was screaming. He could burst, EXPLODE, bring the whole thing down! Burn everything and everyone to a cinder.
I WILL BURN EVERYTHI-
It stopped.
…All was still.
…Silent.
Blue-grey.
Like her eyes.
/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\
He drew breath.
It felt like ragged knives being drawn over his throat, like he'd been screaming for hours.
He opened his eye and found that he was sitting upright, propped up by a stone in front of his firepit. A pot bubbled overtop of it, the smell of rice strong. Katara was there, folding the laundry she had brought to wash.
"Wha-" he coughed, his voice rust and gravel.
"Good, you're awake," Katara said briskly, not taking her eyes off the clothes she was folding. "I wasn't sure if you would wake up, and I'd hate to leave you here unable to defend yourself." Her face and tone made it clear that she would have done so anyway had she finished her laundry first.
"Are you alright?" Zuko rasped, exhaustion plain in his voice.
"Am I alright?" She said wonderingly, turning to look at him. "Do you care?"
"…Yes."
"Why?" Katara snapped, scorn heavy in her voice.
"Because… I'm in love with you."
Katara's mouth dropped open and the pair of pants she was folding fell to the ground.
"You should go," Zuko said, turning to stare into the fire. "The boy will be wondering where you've gone."
"You… you can't just… Why would you SAY that?" she whispered, horrified.
"Because I'm tired. Far too tired to come up with a good lie." He shook his head. "I'm not very good at it, even in the best of times."
"So- so- you just tell me a bad lie instead?!"
"No."
"But… but… you hate me," she said, horror mingled with confusion in her voice.
"I don't."
"We're enemies!"
Zuko shrugged.
"I've threatened to kill you… A LOT."
Zuko smiled weakly. "You are never more beautiful than when you are threatening me."
Katara threw up her hands. "You're insane!"
"Yes, I know. That's why you should leave," he said turning back to the fire.
Katara blinked in confusion. "You mean…"
"I mean not figuratively or metaphorically, Shinjo. I am insane. Prone to psychotic breaks. I am an evil monster who can't even muster the self-control to stop himself from slaughtering children." He sighed, slumping in place, defeated. "If just the memory of Matomo is enough to- to-" be broke off, shivering.
"That's what happened at Matomo? You were possessed by a spirit?"
"Yes, I was… what?"
"You were possessed by a spirit, and it made you do all those things?"
"Possessed by a- No. I have a mental condition. I don't know what they teach you in the barbarian south, but mental issues aren't caused by-"
"I know what psychosis is, thank you. I also happen to know what spirit possession looks like. I have been traveling with Aang for a year now."
"I am NOT the Avatar, Shinjo."
They stared at each other for a long moment.
"So, you're too tired to lie to me?" Katara said rising to her feet.
Zuko nodded.
"Why are you trying to capture us?"
"I'm not. Not anymore."
"We've been getting attacked ever since we came into the Earth-Kingdom! Your Fire-Nation soldiers and those assassin women-"
"I don't have any soldiers anymore and I never had assassins."
"Then why are they chasing us?"
"Did you think it was just some… whim of mine to capture the Avatar?" Zuko said, voice picking up a little energy. "His Majesty the Fire-Lord has ordered his capture and he will not stop."
"Then why did you?"
Zuko paused a beat, narrowing his eye. "How did you stop me?" he said finally.
Katara looked taken aback. "What?"
"You stopped me from losing control; how?"
"I froze you, in a block of ice," she said, looking away. "I wasn't sure if you would survive."
"Thank you."
"…You didn't answer my question."
"I didn't, did I?" he said smiling weakly. "Silence is not the same as lying."
"Was it because of me? Because you… you…" she couldn't force the words out.
"No," he sighed tiredly. "I've been in love with you since the battle at Tohin Wo."
"Tohin WO?" her eyebrows climbed her head. "You… you tried to sell me to pirates!"
Zuko looked away, mildly ashamed. "I would have come back for you… and then arrested them for human trafficking."
"They… they would have-"
"I know," he broke in. "I… I didn't even think about that until I saw the way the pirate captain looked at you." He paused remembering the man's screams. "He did not die very well," he growled.
"You killed him?" she squeaked, her eyes going wide again.
"I'd have killed them all," he said darkly, "the madness had me, but my uncle managed to distract me in time."
"Stop evading," she said giving herself a shake and re-fixing him with a glare. "WHY have you stopped chasing us?"
"Why do you care?"
"Because I want the truth. I'm tired of hearing all these different contradicting stories; the noble 'Prince of Fire' and the 'Butcher of Matomo.' I want to know who I'm talking to right now, and silence is as good as a lie."
They stared at each other for another long moment. Zuko still slumped against the rock he was propped up on, Katara arms crossed and tapping her foot impatiently.
"Fine," Katara said breaking the silence with a sniff, "if you won't tell me anything then we have nothing to-"
"Because there's no point," Zuko whispered, eye on the ground in shame. "No matter what I do now I can never go home again."
"What? But why…?"
Merciless Ancestors… she doesn't know.
"I… I thought everyone knew. I was banished, Shinjo," he said forcing the words out despite his growing shame and humiliation. "Banished from my home and the sight of my father, until I captured the Avatar. I haven't been allowed home in over five years."
"But why?" she seemed horrified.
"Because the Avatar is the last barrier in the way of Oda's dream, to conquer the world."
She shook her head. "No, I meant why were you banished?"
"I… I showed disrespect, to my father and his councilors," he rasped, mouth dry as he spoke. "I was foolish, and just as lacking in self-control as I am now."
"You couldn't have been much older than I am now. Why would you be cast out for that?"
Zuko blinked. Same age as… Ash and bone, have I fallen in love with a child? "How… old are you?" she certainly didn't look thirteen.
"I just turned seventeen last week? What does that have to do with-"
Zuko sighed in relief. "Thank the Sun. I'm only a year and a half older than you. I'd thought maybe I was strange."
"You're… you're only eighteen?! But I thought you were… But that means… you were only thirteen when you were banished?!" she seemed even more horror-struck.
"How old did you think I was?"
"I don't know! In your twenties?! This doesn't make any sense, Aang wasn't even awake five years ago."
"I am aware."
"So… your father sent you out to find someone that nobody even knew existed… because you were rude? You were thirteen! You should have seen Sokka at that age!" She shook her head in wonder. "You're almost the same age as him." She seemed stunned by that fact.
"My age was not an excuse, I was an adult and I spoke out of turn. I was a Prince. I was to be held to a higher standard."
"… Was?
"I am ronin now, Shinjo. Cast out. Disowned. Honorless. Even if I did capture the Avatar now it wouldn't be enough to redeem me," he said sighing bitterly. "No more than I deserve for my failures. You should have just let me die, it would have been better than th-"
Katara lunged forward and slapped him, hard, across the face.
"Life," she snarled, her blue-grey eyes boring into his, "is a gift from the spirits. To allow someone to die when you could save them is a sacrilege. To wish for death is blasphemy, and worse it is cowardice. I had not thought you a coward, Akodo Zuko."
With that she turned, purple robes swinging, and stalked off across the stream and into the woods, back the way she had come.
Wow… what a woman! Zuko thought happily, stunned face curving into a foolish smile, his spirits soaring. Wait a minute…
"Shinjo?" Zuko called. "You forgot your laundry!"
Katara, red-faced and eyes down, walked quickly back across the stream to retrieve the laundry, including the pair of pants she'd dropped.
"It was a good exit," Zuko mused aloud, fighting a smile. "We'll pretend that last part didn't happen."
Katara looked absolutely furious as Zuko's gravelly laughter followed her back to camp.
/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\
A light jog would do him good he'd decided.
He admitted that he'd grown a bit indolent over the last few months since becoming ronin. Too much lounging about drinking sake. Not enough exercise, not enough practice. Just because he had been disowned was no reason to become fat and useless.
The fact that, by jogging, he could, based on his rough mental calculations, keep up with a, entirely hypothetical flying bison, had nothing to do with it. That he continued east along the, again hypothetical, bison's most probable course, given tactical motivations and local weather conditions, was entirely circumstance. He most certainly did NOT smile and pick up his pace slightly when he caught sight of a tiny, hypothetical, spec on the horizon.
Not at all.
A/N: Hello my friends and welcome to the end of the chapter. You have done well, and I am proud of you! Here we begin our major canon divergence, wherein Zuko actually gets screen time. Our boy sort of disappears from the show after he and Iroh split up. Certainly, they made up for it with the phenomenal "Zuko Alone" episode but as that episode has no real anchors in the show timeline (it could have happened at almost any point) we have no idea what the boy is getting up to until "The Chase" wherein he somehow gets back on the trail of the Avatar and his sister.
So, look forward to that!
META-BITS TIME!
Family Mon: A mon is the classic sort of crest or seal of a family. L5R is very animal-centric in its iconography. For those interested Zuko and Katara's family mon can be easily found with a quick google search for "Akodo" or "Shinjo mon," they are of course a Lion and a "Ki-Rin" (a unicorn-like figure).
Avatar Day Song: Ah singing, I don't know where this idea came from, but I absolutely loved that there would be an anti-avatar festival song that would be super catchy. Insert whatever melody you like in there, as long as its catchy. For myself, I always hear the chorus to the tune of "The Old Grey Mare." The old grey mare as played on the biwa anyway. YMMV. My thought is that it would get stuck in the Gaangs heads as well, much to Aang's irritation. So, when on a morning Katara wakes and find that earworm still there she takes a long walk by the riverside so as to not hurt Aang's feelings. Hence her presence at this oh so fateful encounter.
Détente: Zuko and Katara have never really had a conversation. Still haven't, not really, but in this chapter they get somewhere approaching that. There is dialog, they communicate, information is exchanged. For the most part, Katara learns a whole great MESS of stuff about Zuko. Primarily that he is in love with her. She did ask him a direct question and Zuko does NOT like lying. So, he just rolls with it. She's already seen him at his worst he thinks, might as well just get it all out there. I imagine it actually makes him feel a whole lot better, which the poor woobie really does need before he slips down the path of alcoholism.
Hey, thanks again for reading! If you've got questions comments or just want to engage in some Avatar related convo drop me a comment/review what have you.
Also, from a technical note I was hoping for some feedback on the dialog, I'm entering a very TALK heavy few chapters and I'd like to be sure that it's coming through clearly/ flowing well.
Thanks, a THIRD time!
.
NEXT WEEK on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...
Zuko engages in stalking! Then eats fire-flakes and takes in a show!
TUNE IN. Same Zuko time, Same Zuko channel!
Original post date: 2 September 2018