A/N: Welcome to the very last chapter! After such a long time (even though there is such a small number of chapters) this fic is finally coming to a close. Enjoy! :DDD

Disclaimer: Nothing copyrighted is mine.


Slices of Ocean Kumquat

Zutara Week 2011

Theme 7: Caught


Afternoon…

A flurry of snowflakes danced along the large distance between Zuko and Katara.

They faced one another, eyes locked in a silent intensity. Only a small frown knitted Katara's slender eyebrows as she swallowed thickly, her countenance stony and unyielding. The sigh she heaved was visible in the frigid winter air, puffing out from between her lips and vanishing in the race of snow as she began to speak. "Why?" she asked quietly, face grave. "Zuko, I need you to tell me why you did it."

She could see the frustration flicker in him as his fists clenched and teeth gritted in a scowl, before snuffing out as he forced himself to turn away, facing to the side so she could see his profile. Still, he continued to glare at the white ground, as though he could burn a hole in the floor of the North Pole and submerge them all in icy, dark water. "I already told you," he muttered.

"But that isn't enough!" she cried, extending her arms out in a beseeching manner.

"It's going to have to be!" he retorted, wringing his gloved fingers together – perhaps to stop himself from really attempting to melt the North Pole. Another stretch of silence thickened between them, and before he lost Katara to it, he said more calmly, "I'm sorry, Katara. Really. But it had to be done."

Katara pursed her trembling lips together and looked down, defeated and overcome with disappointment.


Earlier that day…

"Why can I still feel the cold through my boots? It's like I'm walking barefoot on ice. It's annoying. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of wearing boots in the first place?" Zuko concluded his string of complaints as he, Sokka and Hakoda walked to the edge of the ice, the rim before it gave way to the inky indigo sea by which the Northern Water Tribe was surrounded. After the end of the War, this enormous Water Tribe had become more liberal with the wall. Of course, it was still in place as a security measure with access controlled relatively firmly, but citizens and visitors could leave and enter with more leisure than before. Thus, the three of them had today decided to partake in a fishing trip.

"Quit your yapping." Sokka rolled his eyes. "I thought you were a firebender. Shouldn't you be, like, really hot and stuff?"

Zuko smirked. "Why yes, I am really hot. Part of the reason why your lovely sister's marrying me-"

Hakoda cleared his throat. "What's that you're saying?"

"Right." Zuko caught himself, remembering Hakoda's presence just in time. "Well, I haven't been to any of the Poles for so long – and I was mostly on a ship, not the ice."

"Your problem, not mine," said Sokka with a lazy grin.

Zuko rolled his eyes and glanced around him. The day was a mild one, with milky light draping over the chunks of jagged icebergs floating in the water. A meek snow was drifting from the cloudy sky, not enough to disrupt their task for today – some villagers had said that it would grow heavier later in the day, but they knew that they would be finished up before then. Zuko flexed his fingers inside his gloves, staring around to find the boat which would transport them out over the water. He frowned, seeing only a tiny dinghy; it certainly was not large enough to carry all three of them… "Is there another boat around here, then?" he asked.

Hakoda slung his arm around his future son-in-law's shoulders. "Now now, Zuko, don't complain. This boat is perfect for your purpose."

"My purpose?" Zuko looked up at the chief of the Southern Tribe, bewildered.

"Didn't Sokka tell you?"

"About what?"

"I guess not then. Did you forget to tell him, son?"

Sokka cocked his head mischievously, the corner of his lip tugging upwards. "Oops."

Zuko frowned at him, and then turned to Hakoda with a hopefully more respectful expression – but the man was smiling strangely at him, too. Huh? The firebender could not help his irritation and confusion. He was never sweet-tempered anyway. "I don't understand and nobody's telling me anything. Is there a reason why we came out here, or are you two just gonna stand there smiling at me all day?"

Hakoda let out a laugh in his gruff voice. "Of course there's a reason. In the Water Tribe culture, we have a tradition for grooms-"

"Oh, here we go," muttered Zuko, stepping out from under Hakoda's arm.

"-and no matter who the groom is, whether he is an outsider or a tribesman, he must perform this task in honour of his future wife."

"What is it?" asked Zuko tiredly.

"It isn't hard," said Sokka, picking up from where his father left off. "You just need to take that boat out and catch Katara a fish – by yourself, without any help from us. Got it?"

Zuko huffed. "Trust me, I tried hard not to get it."

"Good! Now here's the rod, and get out there and catch my little girl a fish!" laughed Hakoda, shoving a fishing rod and bait into Zuko's hand and giving him a slap on the back, ushering him in the direction of the boat.

"Yeah, yeah…" Zuko dropped the rod and bait into the miniscule boat, doing his best not to fall into the freezing water himself, eventually managing to clamber shakily into it. He felt uneasy just sitting in it – first of all, a wooden bar of the boat, running down the centre along the floor, was digging into the part of a man that should never be dug into. Secondly, the boat was so small that if he turned around too much, it would surely cause chafing and raw skin at his sides. Thirdly, the damned thing generally felt unstable – as if it would snap at any moment and dump him into the Northern Sea. He pulled the fishing rod out from under him, helping to relieve some of the discomfort caused by the wooden bar, and placed it on his lap before taking hold of the paddles.

"All set?" asked Hakoda.

Zuko looked at him flatly, past the point of trying to impress him. "Do I really have to do this? I already made the necklace for her."

"It's tradition, Fire Lord Zuko," said Hakoda, pronouncing each word carefully. "You have to do this, otherwise you will not be granted permission to marry my daughter and if you try to defy me I can always have at you with the entire force of the Water Tribe behind me." His tone was quite cheerful.

Zuko chuckled uneasily, unable to tell if he was being serious or not. "We wouldn't want another war, would we?"

"Nope!" answered Sokka. "Now go on before the snow storm hits!"

"But I'm going to look ridiculous," mumbled Zuko.

"We all have our moments, Sparky," said Sokka sympathetically. "Now get." He punctuated this by pointing his index finger, frowning seriously. Zuko could just about picture him wearing his famed fake beard.

"Fine."

The firebender left the icy dock, rowing strongly, but it was the flat and vexed expression on his face that set off Sokka and his father. Tears were streaming down their faces as they laughed with each other, clumsily exchanging triumphant high-fives, and clutched their sides to contain themselves as though they simply could not bear the laughter rushing out of them. Panting, his face hanging near the ground, Sokka managed to stammer, "D-Dad, this is t-too rich! H-He's buying every bit of it!"

For a moment, Hakoda stared at his son and attempted to stop laughing – instead making gasping sounds, as if he was trying to get out a sentence or two. Sokka watched his father in amusement as he finally gave up on trying to talk, and both lapsed back into a fit of giggles.

As the father and son continued to wrestle with their heaving lungs, Zuko wrestled his own fierce duel with the fishing rod, at one stage accidentally getting his hand tied in a knot at the reel. Finally, after minutes of struggling, he poked a piece of bait on the end of the hook and was casting off into the water, scowling worse than Toph when Katara had tried to exfoliate her using her own mud against her. The urge to fidget and shuffle was extreme, for no comfort could be found in the cramped boat, and there was no telling how long it would be before an unsuspecting fish were to spot the delicious worm and decide it wanted a bite.

Suddenly, the firebender heard a thump on the underside of the boat and nearly jumped in excitement. Almost immediately after that, he felt a tug on the rod and saw the tip bending downwards – it was happening. "Agni, it's happening." Zuko began to reel the fish in feverishly. His task was nearly complete and he would be able to return to the city with pride along with the marital fish. A splash of water alerted him of the fish's breaking of the water's surface, and in triumph he lifted the rod in the air, watching the fish's silver fins flailing above him. Looking to Hakoda and Sokka on the land, he grinned. "You all thought I couldn't do it, but I did! I persevere, I strive on, and as long as I do that, I can't be defeated!" Zuko unsteadily got to his feet in the heat of the moment. "It's not easy to get rid of me!"

Sokka cupped his hands around his mouth. "Okay, we get it – you're invincible like a cockroach! Now sit down! You're not meant to stand on a boat when it's in the middle of the water!"

Zuko hesitated in his waving around of the marital fish. "Huh?" And with that, he tipped over and tumbled into the icy water of the North Pole.

"Zuko!" Sokka shouted, starting forward in shock. "S-Sparky?" he called lamely a few moments after the firebender disappeared beneath the surface. "Dad, what if he's…? Then… Dad, this whole thing was our idea. D-Did we just kill our friend a-and future family member? I mean, now Katara's gonna kill us! W-What if we just killed the Fire Lord?" Sokka bit his nails and grabbed onto his warrior's wolf tail. "I mean, sure, that's what we wanted during the War, but I really like this Fire Lord, and – what if we start a whole new war?"

Hakoda drew in a deep breath, staring fixedly at the spot where Zuko had fallen. "Calm down, son. He's a firebender – his body heat and practiced breath control should give him a longer chance of staying in there than if we were to jump in now. It's the height of winter… But you know, I hear he's survived explosions, burning, hurricanes, lightning and freezing. Surely he'll survive this."

"Yeah, he has lived through all that. He's pretty damn resilient, now that I think about it. Just like a roach…" said Sokka wonderingly, folding his arms and holding his chin. "I just wonder why he's taking so long now."

The two on the land did not know of the battle going on beneath the water's surface. With the shock and sudden cold, Zuko had dropped the fishing rod along with the fish that he had been so excited to catch, and then proceeded to search for it amidst the blue. But the lower he went, the darker it got, and although he was a seasoned swimmer of the polar seas, the cold and lack of fresh air was beginning to take its toll on him. Although he tried to keep on, Zuko grew more and more frustrated by the second, resorting to desperately swimming after any fish that he saw. At one point an entire school of fish swarmed around him, but they were too quick and slippery. By the time his breath was truly running out, he was utterly furious, warmth building in his palms as if he could release a gust of fire. With an underwater howl of anger that resulted in a multitude of bubbles flying from his mouth, Zuko pushed towards the surface and burst out savagely. He did not even pause to gulp in air, and as he swam – for he gave up on the infernal, rickety boat – his teeth were clenched, making his breathing rather noisy.

Arriving at the pier, he did not accept Hakoda and Sokka's offered hands, instead clawing at the ice and hauling himself out of the water. With a grunt, Zuko let out a burst of steam from all over his body, instantly drying himself. He had been underwater for much longer when he was trying to sneak into the Northern Water Tribe during Zhao's siege, and thus it did not take very long to restore him to his normal body temperature – as normal as could be when in the North Pole during winter.

"I am going to town," he said between clenched teeth, pushing past the two Water Tribe men. "And I am going to buy a fish."

Sokka frowned. "But-"

Zuko shoved his palm in the other boy's face. "I don't care what you say or what you think. You aren't going to stop me. I'm going to buy a fish. A fish is a fish."

"Yes, a fish is a fish is a fish, but a marital fish is not just a fish, Zuko," said Hakoda, gently placing a thickly gloved hand on Zuko's shoulder. "No one has attempted purchasing a marital fish before because it's not allowed – everyone knows that. It's not proper to take shortcuts."

Zuko stepped out of his touch and began to make his way to the entrance arch of the city. "Didn't I tell you that you aren't going to stop me?" he called, a distance away.

Sokka and Hakoda watched him go, watched him disappear beneath the arch and out of their sight, until they allowed laughter to take hold of them once again. After minutes of laughter and gasps and exclamations racking their bodies, the father and son finally collapsed on the snow, left-over chuckles just barely hitching their breaths. Sokka sat up, twisting his body in the snow to peer at Hakoda, who was sprawled a few feet away from him. "Dad?"

"Yes, son?"

"I have a new idea."

Hakoda turned his face to grin at him, mischief in his eyes. "Oh?"

Sokka returned his grin. "Yep, I do. How about we tell Katara that he's going to buy her marital fish?"

Hakoda frowned worriedly. "The concept of marital fishing was part of the joke, you know. It doesn't actually exist."

"Of course I know, Dad! What I'm saying is that we should let Katara in on the prank…"

"Ah, I see." Hakoda nodded, catching on. "So when Zuko brings home a fish, Katara won't be confused because of not being part of the prank…"

"Instead she'll put on an act of being upset, angry and… however a woman would react in this situation…"

"And we won't be revealed as soon! Good thinking, Sokka!" Hakoda beamed.

"We are two Water Tribe geniuses, so I thought we could go out with a bang on this one."

Hakoda pushed himself to his feet. "And now we will." He held out a hand to help Sokka up. "Come on, we have to find your sister and utilize what acting skills she has before Zuko arrives there."


Afternoon…

Katara pursed her trembling lips together and looked down, defeated and overcome with disappointment.

Zuko glanced at the fish lying on the snow-covered ground a few feet away from him – the fish that he had bought at the market, not caught. "I know I shouldn't have-"

"No, you shouldn't have!" she shouted, advancing forward so fiercely that he retreated. On her way, Katara snatched up the fallen fish. "Do you have any idea what this great animal symbolizes in the Water Tribe? Do you?" This question was reinforced by the waving around of the aquatic animal. "This fish was meant to symbolize all of the love our marriage will be based on, all of the love you owe me, how much you value me as your bride and, basically, what you think of me!"

"I didn't – huh?"

"And you think I'm nothing but a market fish, is that right?"

"No… No! I-"

"Look at you! You took so long to answer. I just…" She paused, looking down once more with her lips pursed. "You didn't get me the right fish, Zuko. Don't you understand how you're breaking my heart?"

Zuko stared at her, knowing he should be able to understand, and he was feeling guilty, but did the people of the Water Tribe really care about fish this much? "Katara, please-"

"No, I don't think you do," she choked out, her voice sounding strangled. She whisked past him, mashing the fish against his chest as she went, before she stumbled and collapsed to her knees in the snow, her hunched form shuddering.

Zuko turned slowly, the fish in his arms as though he were carrying a child. "Katara… are you… crying?" Well, she was holding her sides very tightly and making tiny gasping noises. Now he felt completely guilty, especially for finding it strange that they idolized fish so much. Right now, the firebender desperately wanted her to forgive him and know that he was ready to embrace and accept her culture, and… now Katara had rolled onto her back. "Katara?" He ventured closer.

Abruptly she let a howl burst from her throat – and it was not a pained howl, Zuko saw. It was laughter. Giggles and gasps shuddered through her, her chocolate brown hair sprawled on the snowy ground beneath her, cheeks flushed. Before he could stop to admire her loveliness, Zuko raised his eyebrow. "What's going on?" he demanded, although he doubted she could hear him.

"Ha!" came a familiar voice from the side of the house.

Zuko whipped around. "Sokka? Were you just hiding there the whole time?"

"Indeed I was," he said with a grin, walking up to Zuko from the side of the family cottage and slapping him on the back. "And you were buying every minute of it! Haha!"

"Buying every minute of…?" Zuko drifted off, realization slowly glowing in his mind. "Sokka," he gritted out through clenched teeth, his features marred with fury. "Was this entire marital fish business a prank?"

"Of course it was, Zuko," said Katara gently, who had managed to calm down and was sitting up, wiping tears from her eyes, though the remains of laughter clung to her cheeks and lips. "I'm sorry – I only found out about it just before you got here. I know Sokka and my dad are creative, but seriously, marital fish?" She allowed a titter to escape. "That's just ridiculous!"

Zuko huffed. He would carry out her punishment later, out of sight of her brother and father. For getting involved in the scheme, she would be subject to his vengeance. He knew all of her weak spots – it would not take a great lot of planning and he would enjoy himself thoroughly… But Sokka – oh, in that particular case, he would allow masculine irrationality to take over.

Sokka laughed. "Exactly! I didn't think he'd get caught up in it – he's Zuko. I thought he'd realize sooner…" And then Sokka drifted off, glancing between the steam rising from the fish in Zuko's hand and the fiery expression on his face. "Uh… Zuko, buddy?"

Katara raised her eyebrows. "I think this is meant to be your head-start, Sokka."

"You think so?" Sokka cocked his head. "He wouldn't really come after me…" But then, in one blast of fire, Zuko burnt the fish to a crisp, letting the blackened remains trail to the ground. "Okay. I think he would."

Zuko flexed his fingers, taking a predatory step forward. "You'd better believe it."


A/N:

Oh my goodness. *crying* I took ages to finish this. I don't know why. And now it's finally done. OH MY GOODNESSSSSSS.

I'm really pleased with this one. I managed to make puns out of the prompt… and I heart puns! :P It's also a bit of a crack-fic, but it was quite fun to write. Oh, and an interesting fact: Zuko's "You'd better believe it" at the end sounded sexy in my mind. X3

Thanks for reading, and thank you for the reviews, alerts, and favourites! I can now finally check something as "Complete". :D Until next time!

~SuperSonic Violet