Showdowns
Christmas Day was both an exciting and busy day for the people in the Mizu household. They had been so tired from last night's preparations but to their disappointment, the work wasn't done yet.
There was an annual Christmas tradition at the Mizu house. In the morning, they would bake various Christmas cookies and put their chosen donations in boxes. After lunch, they would go to the orphanage and the shelter to give out the previously baked cookies and the donations to the needy. On the way home, they would go caroling.
Since Katara and Sokka's friends all decided to spend Christmas at their house, they also had to follow this tradition.
Katara's POV
Wow… It seems like I never left the kitchen. Last night, Zuko and I were washing all the dirty plates and utensils. This morning, I was assigned to baking Christmas cookies.
After everyone had woken up a few hours ago, Gran – Gran immediately assigned tasks for everyone. Aang and Zuko were assigned to clean up the wrappers left from last night's gifts. Jet, Haru and Sokka were told to shovel snow away from the driveway and the walkway. Suki, Toph and Ty Lee were ordered to put the donations in the boxes. Lastly, Azula and I were told to bake the Christmas cookies.
"Okay, Azula. Let's get started." I said. "You want to do the frosting?"
"Sure." she said
I started cracking the eggs and sifting the flour when I noticed Azula fiddling around with the measuring spoons.
"Umm… you need some help there?" I said, giving her a weird look
She continued to struggle with the spoons.
"What exactly is the problem?"
"I can't… get… these damn things to separate!" she growled, completely frustrated
I sighed and gently took the spoons from her hands. I lifted the latch of the lock and gave her the right spoon. She massaged her temples in irritation.
"God, I'm so not good at this." she said, slightly chuckling.
"Don't worry. Just follow the instructions on the cookbook and you'll be fine." I said, giving her a comforting smile
"Right. I'll give it my best shot."
I went back to mixing the batter and started to make small talk. It was kind of unusual. We've never had this many guests over for Christmas before. Still, the more, the merrier. But hey, I've never thought I'd had the Prince and the Princess of the Fire Nation as guests… much less, the former as my boyfriend.
"So… have you ever done this before?" I asked Azula
"You mean inwardly curse at inanimate objects?" she said. "Or baking?"
We both laughed.
"I mean baking."
"Well, no. We always had people doing everything for us back home. Actually, this is around my third time to be in an actual kitchen."
"Seriously?" I gasped
"Well, yeah. I have to admit though. This is kind of… fun."
"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that this is so new to you. You're a princess after all."
"It's not so bad being a princess. All those stupid etiquette lessons are such a drag though."
"You guys had etiquette lessons?"
"Uh-huh. It was required."
"What exactly did they teach you?"
"Proper greetings, good posture, proper dining manners, how to dress for certain occasions… stuff like that."
"Wow… Did they teach you how to walk in heels with a book on your head?"
"Yeah, actually. It was surprisingly hard but it worked wonders for my posture."
"How about Zuko?"
"What about him?"
"What was he like when you were kids?"
"He was a wimp." she replied with a snort
"Hey, come on." I said, giving her a friendly look. "Be nice."
"I am being nice. Wimp is such an understatement."
"Seriously? How bad was he?"
"Well, when we were around five years old, he heard a frog croak at night and he had spend the rest of the week sleeping in my parents' room."
"What did you tell him?"
"Nothing…" she said mischievously. "I put the frog near his window in the first place."
We laughed out loud. I guess Azula had a pretty normal childhood after all…
"Did you ever get in trouble for that?" I asked her
"Nah… My parents never found out."
"Until now!" a voice said from outside the kitchen.
Suddenly, Zuko barged in and pointed an accusing finger at Azula.
"I knew it! I knew you were the one who was putting those frogs near my window! How could you!" he wailed.
"Pffft… Big deal, bro." Azula scoffed. "That was like ten years ago. Move on."
"No way! It's not that easy, you know. Sometimes, when it's late at night, I still hear the croaking in my head… Besides, I don't think you'll be able to move on when I tell you that I was the one who broke the rifle in your first toy weapons set!"
Zuko gave a mocking smirk and watched Azula's mouth form a big "O."
"It was you!" she shrieked. "I thought it was a maid! I almost had her executed!"
"Wow, seriously?" I said
"Well, that rifle was very dear to me, okay?"
"Why is that?"
"It was the only one I could use to shoot noisy birds from my window!"
"Well, now it's gone." Zuko jeered. "Boo. Hoo. Hoo."
"You're so dead!"
Azula grabbed a handful of dough and flung it at Zuko, who blocked it with a frying pan while inching closer to the kitchen exit.
"You're not getting away from me that easily!" Azula shouted, running after Zuko.
I sighed and gave a small chuckle. It was hard to believe that a few weeks ago, they hated each other like Toph hated glitter.
A few seconds later, I heard Sokka enter the room.
"You know," he said, "those two are making it harder to clean up."
"Let them have their fun. It's Christmas, after all."
He stood beside me and poked me in the side.
"Ever wonder why we never had playful fights like those?" he asked, looking wistful
"Duh. Because I'd always win and you would have 'loser' stamped on your butt all the time." I said, receiving a slightly shocked but teasing look from him.
"You're wrong. I would not have 'loser' stamped on my butt all the time-"
"Oh, right. You don't need it stamped on you because those pimples on your forehead already spell out 'loser!'"
"Hey! First of all, my pimples so do not spell out- Hey! I don't even have pimples!"
"That's okay, Sokka. Denial is always the first stage…"
"Will you at least let me finish?"
I laughed at his annoyance and let him continue.
"Number 1: I don't have pimples and even if I did, they would not spell 'loser." Number 2: If we had a fight like Zuko and Azula's, I would undoubtedly win and you would be the one with the loser sign. Number 3: We never had fights like that because we used to wrestle."
"Oh yeah, we did! Why did we stop again?"
"I think we broke one of Gran-Gran's antique vases so she got really mad and we never wrestled again."
"Lucky for you."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Lucky for you that we don't wrestle anymore because I'd still kick your ass."
"In your dreams."
I put down the spatula I was using to mix more batter and gave him a challenging glare.
"I'll prove it. Right here, right now, Tough Guy."
He scratched the back of his head and laughed.
"No way, Katara." he said, flexing his virtually non-existent biceps. "Have you seen these babies? If I wrestle you, you'd be so hurt that I might go to jail for it."
I rolled my eyes and uttered two words that I knew would make him want to wrestle me.
"Chicken shit…."
As the words rolled off my tongue, he gave me a threatening stare.
"What did you just say?"
"You heard me, Sokka…."
"You are so going to regret this…"
We inched closer to each other, our eyes locked in stare-down. As the stare-down continued, my hand slowly crept into the bag of flour and I grabbed a handful of the white powder.
"Fine…" he said, keeping his smirk and changing his tone to a more playful one. "You wanted it, you got it. We'll wrestle now…"
I tightened my grip on the flour but kept my eyes on his as he started a countdown.
"Three….Two….One….G-"
In a split second, I threw the handful of flour on his face and temporarily obstructed his vision. He screamed and fell over, not aware of what just happened.
"You just got flour-ed, punk! If you want to wrestle, you have to catch me first!"
I ran outside, giggling, feeling as carefree as I did when I was a kid…
Zuko's POV
Maybe I shouldn't have broken that rifle… Azula was seriously kicking my ass here. We were out in the snow, hurling snowballs at each other. Not to mention, I still had a bit of dough on my face that she threw at me earlier. Maybe I did deserve that but come on, she did so much more bad things to me when we were younger.
I remember that time when she put ipecac in my breakfast. I was throwing up for at least two hours. Also, that time when she set my pants on fire while we were performing a technique in front of the court… And that time when she shot my first messenger hawk… And that time when she exchanged all my solid-colored notebooks for Powerpuff Girls stationary…
Well, I admit, I did burn her hair off in the fifth grade… Not on purpose, of course, but she did have to wear a wig for about four months. That did nothing to improve our relationship. It's just lucky that we get along now. If she was already a killing machine when we were kids, who knows what damage she can do now that she's grown up?
WOOOOSH!
"Ouch!" I yelped, rubbing my cheek. Damn, she had a good aim. "That hurts, you know!"
"I know!" she yelled back. "That's sort of the point, Zuzu!"
After a few more snowballs and a lot more bruises, I brought out my white handkerchief and waved it around.
"I surrender, Azula! I'm sick of this! You win! You win!"
As I stood up, I heard footsteps crunching in the snow. When I looked up, another snowball hit me directly on the face.
"OUCH! What the hell!" I growled, taking a few steps back because of the impact. "I thought we had a truce!"
"I know." Azula replied coolly. "The winner always get a prize, right?"
I rolled my eyes at walked with her back to the house. We were about to enter when we heard grunts and girlish wails from the side of the house. One of the voices sounded like Katara's.
Alarmed, I ran to where the voices were coming from.
"Katara! Katara!" I shouted, arriving where they were wrestling. "Are you o-HUH!"
Someone was getting hurt alright, but it wasn't Katara. The girlish wails were coming from Sokka, who was caught in a headlock.
"Oh hey, Zuko." she casually said, as if her headlock required no effort whatsoever. "What's up?"
"Umm… You tell me…"
"Sokka and I are just reliving out childhood days. He said I could never beat him and look at him now."
"Good job, I guess?"
"HELLO! Why is no one noticing the pain I'm in right now!" Sokka screamed helplessly. "Zuko, don't just stand there! HELP ME!"
I smiled and shook my head at him.
"Sorry, bro. This is a family matter. Can't get involved in that."
"Pfft…yeah." Azula said, balancing her elbow on my shoulder. "He's still tired from the snowball fight we had earlier. We all know Zuzu here lacks stamina… and the normal amount of male testosterone."
"Shouldn't you be inside?" I interrupted
"Fine, whatever… See ya, Zuzu!"
After she left, I watched the siblings wrestle. After a few tumbles, Katara still had the upper hand.
"Katara, shouldn't you go easy on him?" I asked. "He is your brother, after all."
"Meh…" she replied. "I'm done here. This is getting boring."
She let Sokka go, brushed the snow off of her clothes and started walking back.
"Hey, wait!" Sokka said, still breathless and stuck on the ground. "We're not done here!"
"Oh yeah?" Katara scoffed. "Try to stand up."
We watched as Sokka attempted to get off of his butt and get back on his feet. After about five failed attempts, I helped him up, put his arm around my shoulders for support and walked inside (or in his case, limped inside).
"Hey, why'd you help him up?" Katara teased
"Losers stick together." I said, sticking my tongue out at her
I let Sokka settle himself on the couch as Gran-Gran entered the room.
"What happened to you, Sokka?" she asked worriedly
"Katara did it! Katara beat me up!" Sokka confessed like a child
"Ohh…. That's nice, dear."
"But…But…Gran-Gran, do something!"
"Sokka, you've always lost to her. You should be used to it by now."
With that, Gran-Gran chuckled and left. I followed her out and went to Katara's room.
Katara's POV
I was relaxing on my bed after that fight with Sokka when I heard someone knock on my door.
"Who is it?" I called
"It's me." said Zuko from outside the door.
"Hold on a minute." I quickly said
Panicking, I went to the mirror and attempted to brush my unruly hair and put gloss on my chapped lips. As I stood in front of the mirror, I saw Zuko already inside.
"Hey! I said hold on for a minute!" I told him, a blush creeping to my cheeks
"You did? I'm sorry. I didn't hear you." he replied
I gave him a doubtful look.
"I swear." he said, putting his hands up defensively. "I heard you mumble words but I didn't understand them so I just assumed that you wanted me to enter."
"Fine…" I said, walking closer to him. "But seriously, wait next time, okay? I mean, what if I was naked in here?"
He smirked and looked at me devilishly.
"Why is it such a bad thing if I see you naked?" he said
I slapped his arm playfully and laughed.
"Well, look at me now. My hair's all tangled and my lips are so dry. If you had waited, maybe I would have looked a little better for you."
"Come on. You know you always look amazing to me…"
"That's sweet..."
"So I just came to check up on you…"
"I was just relaxing. Wrestling is pretty tiring, plus Sokka's screams made my ears ring really bad."
"At least you didn't get snowball bruises."
I looked at him up and down and made him sit on my desk chair. I rummaged through my drawers and brought out my medicine kit.
"You still have dough on your face…" I said, wiping it off with a paper towel.
"Yeah… It's hard to tell whether it's snow or dough on me. Either way, I still got bruised."
I started rubbing ointment on the reddish blotches on his skin.
"Hey, what's that?" he said, pulling his arm away. "It smells funny."
"Chill out." I replied, reclaiming his arm. "It's ointment. It'll help bruising heal."
As I rubbed the ointment on his arm, I saw his red foldable headphones in his pocket.
I smiled as I thought about the moment he opened his gift from me. He looked like a kid in a candy store as he set his hands on the red headphones that I bought for him. They had black flames on the headband and black flaming skulls on the earpieces. I had seen him looking at those every time we passed by the store in the mall. I quickly made a mental note to buy him those for Christmas.
"Why are you smiling?" he asked
"I'm just thinking about our Christmas gifts. I'm glad you liked yours…"
"I loved it, Tara… But I love you more…"
"I know, sweetie. I love you too…"
He puckered up and leaned in but I put my index finger on his lips.
"Not until I'm done treating your bruises, okay?"
"Okay…" he said, pouting like a child, eliciting a small giggle from me.
"I loved your gift by the way… Thank you…"
I touched the silver heart-shaped locket on my neck. When he gave it to me, I immediately started thinking about which couple picture to put inside. A few seconds later, he brought out a box with silver and cerulean designs which matched those of the locket. He reached out, opened the locket and pressed it to a heart-shaped keyhole. The box automatically opened and a soft melody started playing. From inside the box rose a twirling figurine of a dancing couple – the woman was in a traditional Water Tribe dress and the man was in a traditional Fire Nation outfit. He held it in his hands in front of me until the song ended and the lid of the box automatically closed. He looked so handsome with twinkling eyes and a sheepish smile on his face, excitedly waiting for my reaction. Once the lid closed, I tackled him and gave him a face-ful of kisses.
"Anything for you… "
"Where did you get it?"
"I have… connections…"
"Must be convenient to be the prince of a whole nation."
"Well, it was still hard to get… Not many people still make customized music boxes. It was just lucky that my uncle was still in contact with the one who made those for the Royal Family."
"I'm sorry if it was too much trouble."
"No, don't worry about it. I was the one who was worried, actually. I thought you would find it too cheesy."
"No, it was perfect… Just like you…"
"Me? Perfect? No way… You deserve a great gift anyway."
"What makes you say that?"
Having finished rubbing ointment on him, we sat down on the bed. I let him put his arm around me while I leaned my head on his shoulder.
"Because you gave me the greatest gift of all…"
"Huh? The headphones were no big deal. I just saw you looking at them a lot so-"
"I didn't mean the headphones, Tara…"
I gave him a confused look. What was he talking about? I didn't give him anything else…
"I meant… you…" he said. His gold eyes were staring straight into my blue ones.
"M-Me?"
"Yeah… If you hadn't come into my life, who knows what would have happened to me? Having you with me if the best gift I could ever have. Do you know why?"
I shook my head.
"Because you gave me hope again… I never thought someone like me could ever find someone as amazing as you, much less become her boyfriend. Hell, before I met you, I didn't think any girl would really love me for me… not just for my status. But you…you changed all that… So I should be the one thanking you…"
By the time he stopped talking, tears of joy were already flowing down my cheeks. He started wiping them away with his thumb and lifted my face so that our eyes met.
"Seriously, Katara… Thank you for everything… I love you." he said, leaning in slowly.
I just closed my eyes and let him kiss me. I know we've done it a hundred times before but this time was special. It felt as wonderful as seeing the first flower bloom in spring or catching the first snowflake in the winter. He had just let me know what was truly inside his heart and what he really felt about me, a plain-Jane from a freezing icecap on the other end of the world. It was at this moment that I realized that he was the real deal… He wasn't some rich brat who was just looking for a good time. He wasn't a Fire Nation robot who didn't have feelings about anything or anyone. He was, at the same time, ordinary but one of a kind. He also felt pain and love like other people did. He was just as human as I was but he made me feel like a goddess…
When we separated for air, we kept our faces an inch apart to cherish the moment. I stared into his golden eyes and mirrored his sincere smile. I caressed the left side of his face, feeling every bump on the rough skin, showing no reprehension for the scar and kissed it right below his eye. No matter how ugly he thought he was, he'll always be the most handsome man on earth.
"I love you too, Zuko. You have no idea how lucky I am to have you here with me…."
He tried to say something but I pushed him away and put my index finger to his mouth.
"You talk too much, Zuzu…" I whispered, pulling him in for another kiss.
Needless to say, it was the best Christmas ever.
Author's Note:
HEY! I'M BACK! God, I'm sorry I took so long but school was hell, guys. I know it's not the holidays anymore but I DO owe you guys holiday specials :D
I know the sibling rivalry seems random but I just thought it'd be nice to put it in. By the way, am I the only one who thinks it would be awesome if they really did make a music box and locket like that?
Anyway, hope you liked it! R&R please! :D
