Author: Rashaka
Wordcount: 6,238ish
Rating: M for Mature.
Status: One-shot, complete.
Spoilers: The bulk of this was written before the season 2 premier, but certain aspects of the premier were later incorporated. However, it has now been jossed by episode 2x08 "The Chase", so this can be considered spoilery for episode 2x02, and a future AU after that point.
Summary: Zuko and Katara come together one warm afternoon under circumstances not made for ancient Water ballads or great Fire tales: they meet in a ventilation duct.
IMPORTANT: What you're about to read is not actually a drabble, but the first few paragraphs of a longer, mature-rated one-shot. The full story can be found at:
fichaven .org /viewstory .php? sid1398
Whose Hearts Are Mountains
In the song lore of the Water tribes, it is said that when you meet someone as an enemy or as a friend, you meet half a person. When you have met someone as both, then you may claim to know their heart completely.
In the Fire Nation there is a story of two people who meet at many points through the journeys of their lives but speak only to their own companions, never to each other. It is considered one of most tragic of Fire legends, for the Spirits brought two souls together, yet they were too afraid to seize their destiny.
Zuko and Katara come together one warm afternoon under circumstances not made for ancient Water myths or great Fire tales: they meet in a ventilation duct.
Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, self-appointed bodyguard to the Avatar and sister to the idiot who probably got himself and the Avatar stranded two islands over while she was actually doing her part of the plan, hates them. Ventilation ducts, that is. For the last hour she's been having a hell of a time crawling through them in her tribal pant-skirt and summer overcoat, and in the tiny portion of her mind that isn't preoccupied with terror and confusion she wonders if she'll ever be clean again. She can guess that her clothes must look more gray than blue, and somehow she just knows there are soot smudges on her face. She is hot and miserable and lost in a maze of passages only an insane person would build. Who designed Fire Nation fortresses? Katara has long decided that whoever they are, they should be keelhauled.
In contrast, Prince Zuko is making good time through the narrow spaces and enjoying the sweet sensation of victory. Nestled in the sack on his back is the secret map he's just lifted from his sister's make-shift war office. His other reason for sneaking into Azula's fort (only hers temporarily)—the legal documents detailing warrants for their uncle's arrest and expatriation—were burned on the spot. Destroying a scroll sealed by the Fire Lord is a crime of course, but Zuko is hardly the first aristocrat to do it, and he won't be the last. Moreover, the sabotage will slow the princess down should she try to broker a deal with any Earth Kingdom officials or enlist the help of the other generals. It won't stop her, but Zuko takes a sadistic joy in what triumphs he can get and what annoyance he can inflict where his sister is concerned.
Busy with these thoughts and sure of his secrecy, Zuko lets out a undignified yelp when he bumps head-first into someone. There is a shriek, a scrambling of limbs and curses, and then fire rises from Zuko's hand to illuminate the dirty, bright-eyed face of a water tribe woman. She takes one look at his spirit mask in the firelight and screams. Before Zuko can reach out and quiet her forcibly she throws her hands over her own mouth in a bid for silence.
They sit there, the fire between them like a warm lamp, and stare at each other for a bit.
"Hi," she says tentatively. Zuko doesn't trust himself to speak.
The full story can be found at:
fichaven .org /viewstory .php? sid1398