disclaimer: disclaimed.
dedication: to angry raisin duck.
notes: I might have forgotten about this fic oops
chapter title: cracks in the foundations
summary: Zuko, Katara, and life after the war. — Zuko/Katara, others.
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Katara had nothing to say to Aang.
That was the crux of the matter, and the blood didn't drained away from her face as she waited, immobile, for her—ex?—friend to descend from his flying bison. It felt like much longer than it really had been, and Katara could feel Zuko go tense at her side.
Toph pointed her face in their direction, raised an eyebrow, and asked baldy "The hell has you two so mad, huh?"
Katara's shoulders drooped, and she nearly let out a great, tired sigh. "I'm not mad, Toph, I'm—"
Aang came sliding down Appa's tail right at that moment, bald and taller than she remembered, but still her goofy Avatar-boy. It'd barely been a month, and she hardly recognized him.
Zuko was a solid, warm weight by her side.
And she was caught between laughing and crying.
This was so—this was so ridiculous. Aang had been her friend for only months longer than Zuko had, but it was enough to make her want to cringe away and hide. This, this place and this time… in it, Katara was someone different. Zuko didn't need a mother. Katara got to be a person for one, not the one everyone looked to for answers and she—she liked it.
She liked not having the responsibility and she liked being able to do what she pleased and go where she wanted and ruin whatever she felt like ruining.
The Fire Nation wasn't home, but Katara was freer here than she'd ever been at the South Pole. Freer than she'd ever been standing at Aang's side, which is where she'd always thought she'd belonged.
Oh Spirits, she was going to be sick.
"Oi, Sugarqueen, you feeling alright?"
Katara had to smile.
Toph was never going to change.
"I'm fine, Toph," Katara said, and forced herself to smile.
"Zuko, the coolest thing just—Katara?"
"Hello, Aang," she managed. She swallowed back the bile, and looked him in the eyes, and she smiled and smiled and smiled. What else was she supposed to do?
"What—I—why aren't you at the South Pole?"
Her lips thinned into a line that barely skimmed her teeth. She wasn't going to snap at him, she wasn't, she wasn't—
"Katara's here because Uncle invited her," Zuko said before Katara had to come up with a reasonable excuse.
The real reason she was here seemed flimsy in comparison. She watched the cogs work in Aang's mind, and Katara counted down backwards from ten to zero. Three, two, one—
"But… you said the Pole needed you," Aang said.
He looked lost and so incredibly young. Katara wrapped her arms around herself and looked at the ground. She wasn't ready to have this fight. She'd thought she'd have more time to come up with a decent argument, but apparently not.
"I guess the Fire Nation needs me, too," she said, and didn't even look in his direction.
"I guess it does," said Aang.
He glared at the ground, too, and everyone was quiet.
"…Ugh, you people are so clueless. Whatever. Sparky, be a good host and invite us inside, I'm hungry!"
Leave it to Toph to make any awkward situation even worse. Katara shouldn't have even been surprised, but in the two years since she'd really spent any time with Toph, she seemed to have lost her immunity to the girl's utter brashness.
Zuko sighed out fond exasperation. "C'mon, Bandit, let's find you something to eat. Aang…?"
Aang's eyes turned to round grey marbles, and he clutched at Appa's regins. "I'll, uh, just take Appa to the stables. Okay?"
Zuko frowned. "Someone else can do that, Aang, you should probably eat something—"
"No," Aang said, and Katara knew that tone of voice. That was Aang's I'm going to be stupidly stubborn and nothing you say will change my mind voice, the one that always sent her into near fits of rage. There was nothing Zuko could say or do that would stop Aang from putting his sky bison into the stables on his own, and Katara really, really hoped that Zuko wasn't even going to try. "I'll put Appa in, and then I'll catch up."
Zuko looked like he was going to argue.
Katara played peacemaker again (again and again and again; it was never going to end).
"Hey," she said. "It's okay. Let Aang do what he needs to do. I'm pretty hungry, anyway."
This was a lie.
(If you're going to lie, at least make your lie a pretty one.)
"Twinkles, meet us in the dining hall in ten minutes," Toph instructed. She set her hands on meager hips and glared straight in Aang's direction. "If you don't show, I'll come looking for you, and you won't like it."
"Of course, Sifu," Aang said, and he grinned horribly in Toph's direction.
"Shut your face," Toph said arily. "Sparky, carry me. Sugarqueen, be a dear and grab my bags, okay?"
Neither Katara nor Zuko knew quite what to say.
It was probably a good thing they didn't say anything at all, honestly.
Aang didn't look at Katara as he handed her Toph's bags. He was starting to hit a growth spurt, Katara thought distantly. He was growing up so fast, and she was missing it. There was a cruel beauty to it.
Something deep inside her chest ached.
"I'm sorry," she said quietly.
Aang blazed light and life; jerked his up and really glared at her. She'd never really been on the receiving end of this, and Katara found that she very much didn't like it.
"Sorry?" he repeated. "Sorry? How does being sorry help?"
"It doesn't," Katara said, voice a very gentle lull. She'd seen Aang worse than this; she'd seen him turn an uncontrollable blue and destroying half a kingdom without a single thought for the rest of the entire world. She'd seen him cry, seen him upset, seen him when he had absolutely no idea where to turn next.
But she'd never seen him look so betrayed, before.
"I'm sorry, Aang. I'm—I'm so sorry," she said.
"Sorry doesn't cut it," Aang replied.
And then he hauled on Appa's reigns, and promptly dragged the sky bison off towards the stables. Katara hugged herself, and watched him leave.
He looked so small on the horizon.
She turned, and headed back into the Fire Palace.
The only thing she felt was very, very cold.
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tbc.