Pairing: Zuko x Katara
Between
On the journey between life and death, they encounter each other.
Her hair is spun in weaves and coiled into a single chignon, and he is withered, weary, and old as a dying bank.
She smiles at him with soft eyes and a sweet expression he can't grasp.
-
Cautiously she lifts back her hood and steps gently into the rocking boat. He rows them both into the afterlife.
The water is soothing (she wonders if she could bend it back to life). She does not.
-
"We've met always in this place," she comments as they float down west.
"Yeah. I guess we do."
"Isn't that interesting?"
"What?"
"Nothing."
-
At the final stop before they progress into death-life, she gives him a charm and begs him to keep it close (for protection and remembrance). He accepts it awkwardly and honestly replies that he has nothing in return.
She shakes her head, expected that, and dissolves into the mist.
And he vanishes too before setting foot off the boat.
-
The world between worlds is a place Katara never mentions (neither does Zuko). They have seen enough of it for eternity. It is a place no one willingly ventures.