Waterfalls, Memories, and Prisoners Chapter 7: You Are, an avatar: last airbender fanfic

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Chapter 7

Ursa stood in the doorway, gazing happily at her son. She had so much to tell him, so much she wanted to know. But right now, he was happy. She had often wondered what he would look like all grown up. At first, she didn't recognize him; his voice had changed, he'd grown, and then there was the scar. It sent shivers up her spine to imagine her little boy being scarred that badly, on his face. Though, it didn't seem to affect him much. She smiled to herself; it was a sad smile. She'd missed him so much, and when he found her, she wasn't the most important woman in his life anymore.

…....................................................................

Zuko sat on the edge of the hard stone platform, oddly, he felt at home. "You know," Katara's voice spoke out. "We still have to find our way back to the rest of the group."

"I know, but you're still hurt. You need your rest. And I want to talk to my mother," he said calmly, looking into the waterbender's deep blue eyes. Zuko, for a split second, thought back to her long-winded speech; how, at the end when she said 'In fact, I love you!'. How her voice had quivered with sincerity; how she couldn't look him in the eyes afterwards.

"What are you looking at me like that for?" Katara said, drawing back from him several inches. She pulled her legs up in front of her and hugged them against her chest. Silence hung in the air for a moment (a nervous, shy silence that deafened the teens). Ursa sensed the tension and scuttled into the room quickly. She asked Zuko to step out for just a second.

"Fine, but no stories from when I was a baby," he warned jokingly.

Ursa put a warm hand on Katara's shoulder, brining a tear to the young girl's eye. She's just like mom used to be. "He's harmless, I'm sure."

"Harmless, when he wants to be! You should have seen him when he was Mr. Ponytail!" Katara laughed. Zuko's mother joined in hesitantly. "He was down right evil! Well, I guess there's good in everybody!" She giggled slightly. "Or maybe he had too much hot air getting to his brain when he had that bald head of his!"

"Bald!?" Ursa put her hand up to her mouth in shock.

"Yeah," Katara said, relaxing a bit. "He shaved his head after he was burned. I guess. I'd always thought he was a monster, until recently." This time her voice sounded firm, unmoving with neither laughter nor sadness. She cleared her throat, trying to get her happy young girl voice back. "I'm glad he found you."

Ursa forced a smile. "Your mother..."

"She died, a long time ago."

"Oh. I see."

…................................................................

What could they possibly be talking about? Zuko wondered from the next room. It was one of the many thoughts that raged through his mind. How were they going to get outta there? What if he really liked Katara? What if she didn't like him back? What if she did? He leaned against the warm wall of the hut, breathing shallowly. The firebender had done something that he thought he would never get to do; fall in love. Well, now that he had admitted it to himself, there was one person left to tell. But how was he going to go about doing that?

….............................................................

Katara and Ursa had been laughing so hard, that they hadn't noticed Zuko's scarred face nosing into the room. "Hey!" Katara laughed, "Thats uncool!" She laughed harder as she saw the prince standing with half his body in the room. "You shouldn't be spying!" Then she waved him inside, "Come on in."

Zuko shuffled into the room nonchalantly. The former firelady and a beautiful young girl welcomed him silently with smiles. "Zuko," Ursa started. "I've been wanting to ask you- both of you some questions. I want to know what happened in the years I was gone."

Katara looked at Zuko. He almost heard her say, 'You go first, I don't know what happened with you.' "Alright," he sighed. "At first, everything was good. Well, as good as it could have been. But a few months after I turned thirteen, I spoke out of place in a war meeting. Father challenged me to an Agni Ki **Excuse my spellin' peeps!** When I wouldn't fight him, he told me I would learn discipline. Then, he burned my face and banished me. For three years I looked for the Avatar. When I found him, I thought I'd get my honor back. I still don't have it. Then in Ba Sing Se, I was put into prison in Old Ba Sing Se," He quietly stole a glance at Katara; 'Your turn.'

"While we were there," she took over, "he told me about you. And I felt bad for him. I even offered to heal his scar with spirit water. Thats when Aang, he's the Avatar, showed up. And I had to leave. Later that day, Azula convince him to turn against me- us. And Azula attacked Aang. He almost died. Before I knew it, Zuko was at the Air Temple on his knees begging for forgiveness. He knew what he'd done was wrong, but I held Ba Sing Se against him, and hit him. When we finally gave in to him and let him be apart of our group, he seemed, I don't know, like a different person."

"Azula's still after us and Aang," Zuko added.

Ursa shook her head. "I should have known. That girl was always trouble. But I never thought she'd be that demonic." A warm summer wind blew through the open window, blowing the hair off of Katara's shoulders.

"The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, I suppose," she said. Zuko looked away. "Oh, no. Not all apples. Just some of them. The rotten ugly, deformed ones." The fireprince tried to quietly cover his scar with his hand. "No, I mean- the girl apples!" Katara's mouth was moving on its own. She kept fumbling her words, stuttering over sentences. In an attempt to comfort her new found best friend, she admitted, "I had a dream about you."

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Zuko sat close to Katara back in Old Ba Sing Se. The moment seemed oddly perfect. She reached over to heal his scar. The spirit water glowed as it contacted the burned skin. Slowly, the scar disappeared. Katara jumped back. He looked so different... so prince-like. Just as he was about to say thank you, Azula appeared out of no where. She ordered him to kill her. Like a slave, he obeyed without hesitation. He ran after her at full force.

"But I just gave you your face back!" Katara yelled through tears. She water whipped him in the head. That only made him angry. He firebended at her angrily with intent to kill.

She stumbled backwards, falling over a green crystal. "You shouldn't have trusted me," Zuko said just before he burned her to a crisp.

"Okay, never mind," Katara stated shortly. The next thing she remembered after being burned was waking up with the moon over head. "Listen, Zuko. I trusted you. I even, told you what happened to my mother. Ha!- you've been around longer than Jet and Haru put together. I think I know enough about you to know that you're not a bad guy. And you have earned your honor back. I'm a much harsher judge than your father- I can tell you that for sure. All you had to do to get his love was get the Avatar. To get mine, you had to be something more than just- a boy on a mission. You had to be yourself. You had to be good and true. And you are. Trust me, you are."

Zuko's heart pounded in his chest. She was careless with her words. She didn't know what she was saying. She didn't realize- she couldn't have. "You don't mean that," he stated simply, unable to find better words.

Katara took his hand. "Yes, I do," she muttered calmly. His hand was warm, hot even. Before she knew, her palm was sweating. His grasp was almost- painful. Suddenly she tore her hand away and looked at him with confusion in her eyes. "Y-you burned me. You burned me!"

"I'm sorry-" Zuko started, shocked by his own doing.

"Zuko! Why did you do that?" Ursa snapped, almost forgetting that her baby boy was now sixteen. "Let me see, Katara." Without breaking eye contact with the fireprince she held her hand out to his mother. 'I can't believe you burned me...' That look seemed frozen on her face.

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OOH!

Ha! You guys like? Sorry it took so long! Our computer ran out of mega bytes and we had to wait until the 4th of February for our Internet to reset. :-[

Okay, I made the dream- not so good... I admit it.

Oh well!

Hmm... what'll happen next? Click the next button to find out!

Thats right I'm double teamin' you! Aren't I EVIL?!