Collectibles

To Fall in Love

Song Number Thirteen: I Will Possess Your Heart by Death Cab For Cutie

Quote: You've gotta spend some time with me/And I know that you'll find, love/I will possess your heart…

Summary: He should've come with a warning label that read: Warning! I will possess your heart. He really should have.

Katara smiled to herself as she watched Zuko. The young Fire Lord had brought her along on today's excursion: a trip to the capitol's orphanage. It was a bright building on the edge of the city. The outside was made of red bricks and a little gravel pathway leading up to the front doors was lined with trees that were a beautiful, leafy green, even though it was the middle of winter. Fire lilies were planted in window boxes along the first floor windows.

"I try to come here two or three times a month," Zuko had told her that morning as they walked the few miles to the orphanage. "There are some kids who really grab your attention. I set aside a special fund for this place so the owners could expand their property a bit and provide the kids with better clothing and food." That sentence would have come off as arrogance from anyone else, but Zuko had been all smiles and eagerness when he confided in her.

Katara had almost questioned the lack of transportation and their casual clothing, but chalked it up to Zuko not wanting to make the children feel inferior. He was, she knew, a relatively normal person underneath all the formal robes and the flame-shaped crown. He's a good person, she amended, smiling to herself at the thought that she would have throttled anyone who had tried to tell her different two years ago.

Watching him settle the orphaned children onto a circular rug for story time, Katara felt her heart swell with pride. It was something she hadn't felt since Aang had defeated Ozai and saved the world, but it was somehow different this time. The smile on her lips and the warmth flooding her veins felt deeper than the motherly pride she felt when Aang accomplished something great and came running to tell her like a child with a painting they had completed for its mother.

Katara had a feeling she knew why she was so proud of Zuko, and it had nothing to do with her nurturing tendencies.

Zuko had proved time and time again that he was nearly a grown man with no need of her help, approval, and acceptance. Instead, he sought her help on an equal level, treating her opinions as though they were as good as his uncle's or any of his advisors'; he didn't seek out her approval anymore, but let it come naturally as the tides; and her acceptance of his decisions was almost always there, whether he wanted it or not. They worked together as a team, a force to be reckoned with. She sat in on meetings with him and helped him fill out his paperwork. With Zuko, the waterbending princess felt like an equal, like a vital organ to his existence.

"Huyana, why don't you pick out a scroll for story time?" Zuko asked a little girl clothed in a worn dress. She nodded and scurried over to a rack of scrolls, her black ponytail swishing across her back.

Katara turned to the elderly woman beside her. "That's a Water Tribe name," she said quietly.

The woman nodded. "Huyana's mother was from our nation, but her father was a warrior of the Southern Water Tribe."

"I would have never guessed if I hadn't heard her name," Katara confessed.

The woman smiled and said, "If you look closely, you will notice her eyes are blue and her skin is a shade or two darker than the others. Fire Lord Zuko seems to have taken a particular shine to her."

"Are all of these children orphans?" Katara watched as Huyana presented Zuko with a tattered scroll, a shy smile on her face. Zuko smiled back and allowed the girl to sit on his knee as he prepared to read the story to the children.

"Most of them, yes. Their parents either died fighting in the war or in some way closely related to it. Yoki's parents passed away when the plague passed through the city. Mao's mother was murdered not long before his father was deployed. Each child has their own tragic story, but has come so far from the day they came to us. We try to keep them as happy as possible. The Fire Lord has helped a great deal. We are forever grateful for his generosity."

Katara smiled kindly, placing her hand on the woman's shoulder. "You're doing a wonderful job."

"Katara."

The waterbender looked around at the sound of her name falling so casually from Zuko's lips.

"Yeah?"

"Come read with us," Zuko said, patting the spot next to him.

Katara couldn't help but let her smile develop into a grin as she joined him on the secondhand couch. He should've come with a warning label that read, "Warning! I will possess your heart." He really should've. Because that's what he was doing.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the lord of fire was taking over each of her senses and developing a frighteningly larger, more permanent niche in her heart and she had the feeling that once Zuko took over the biggest part of her heart, he would be there for good and she would be in love.

Okay, you guys. We're in the homestretch now. There's only for Collectibles left. I hope you've been enjoying them so far! Let me know what you think in a review!