KATARA

THAT MORNING, BY MUTUAL, UNSPOKEN AGREEMENT, THEY HAD DECIDED TO TAKE THE DAY OFF. Zuko had cast them off, and she had bent the boat across the river, to a spot devoid of people. Zuko tied them up, and then, bundled up against the winter, they had started to walk, arm-in-arm, her head resting on his shoulder as the frost-dusted grass crunched under their boots.

It was a marvelous day, cold, but pleasantly so, the sun casting down just enough warmth to keep away the worst of the chill. Their breath hung in the air in thick clouds of mist, and the arm she had wrapped herself around was deliciously warm. Off in the distance, birds called and spiraled, while the sounds of the village drifted out to them in bits and pieces, carried along by the thin winter air.

It was, Katara reflected, a lot like home, almost painfully so. Her heart shuddered in her chest, and she felt the long miles, the endless distance, more keenly than she had in a very long time. Somewhere out there, Korra becomes an Avatar. Sokka jokes, Toph scoffs, Azula rolls her eyes, Lobsang laughs. Somewhere out there, and she narrowed her eyes, looking off into the distance, Gran-Gran stirs the sea prune stew, and my mother and my father lead the tribe, fretting about us every day. Somewhere out there, my mother prays, every night…

Like so many mothers, in every corner of the world…

She let out the breath she hadn't quite realized she was holding, and burrowed deeper into the side of the man she thought of as her husband, the ceremonies be damned. A banished prince and a chief's daughter…would it even be legal? It was a good question, so good…

"Zuko?"

He turned his head, pressing his lips into the top of her head, just like she had been wanting him to. "Yes, babe?"

She thought for a moment, putting the question together in her mind. They spoke in Nihongo, a language she was trying very hard to learn as quickly as possible. Immersion, she had found, was the best method, so they only spoke Nihongo to each other, except when she was mad. Then, only my native tongue will do…

It never ceased to amuse her, how quickly he had learned to swear in her tribal dialect, the dialect no outsiders were allowed to learn. Another ancient tradition, shattered, because I love a boy.

Best reason in the world, really.

"When we get married…will we be…um…able to?"

She could hear the frown. She never had to look at him to know what he was doing, not anymore. She just knew. "What do you mean?"

"Well…would it be legal? You being from where you're from and me being from where I'm from." She frowned, silently mouthing the sentence over from the top, before shrugging and accepting that he would figure it out.

He did. He always did. Chuckling, he said, "You know…I honestly hadn't thought about that. It used to be illegal for Fire Nation citizens to marry outside of our people, but it was never enforced, and as for royalty…well…let's just say that the various royal families of the world are more closely related than they would care to admit."

"Heh…no kidding?"

"No kidding. Apparently, Emperor Kuei – gods rest his soul – was, in some tangled way, a distant cousin of my uncle's. Don't ask me how, though; suffice to say that it's complicated. Still, though…my grandfather did away with that law, because it was becoming impossible to enforce, and then you have to consider that I'm no longer a prince, so I can marry who I want. Actually…" And here, she could just feel the sly grin on his face. "Your people might the ones I have to worry about."

She frowned. "How do you mean?"

He shrugged, which she didn't like; it required her to lift her head from his shoulder and nuzzle it back into place. No shrugging, I'm trying to get as much cute and cuddliness as humanly possible in here. "I haven't the faintest idea. I had to learn how things work in the North, but as for your part of the world…eh? What with all the tribes and stuff…"

She saw where he was going. It was strange to think about it, which was why she so rarely did. When looked at the right way, as a chief's daughter, she was the one with the higher social status in the relationship. Should Zuko ever meet her father (something she was not looking forward to), it would be Zuko who would have to bow first, and deeper. Not that we bow, but still…

"You know," she said, nibbling a corner of her bottom lip, "I'm not aware of any laws on the subject…of course, we don't really have laws, not like you understand them…"

"Benefits of a mostly non-literate society, eh?"

She giggled. "Yeah, I suppose. Still…I can't think of anything, other than that my father, as good of a man as he is, would never grant his blessing, which would only be a problem if we waited for it."

"How do you mean?"

"Let's just say that I wouldn't be the first girl to run off into the world and come back with a husband. In that situation, the father is generally expected to shrug and make the most of it, since, you know, the buffalo-yak is already out of the stable."

"Hmmm…scandalous…I like it."

She rolled her eyes, popping up to peck him on the cheek before quickly settling her head back into the slot she had long ago learned to find, even in her sleep. "You would, you naughty boy, you."

He chuckled, a deep rumble that shook his body, the sensation traveling through him and into her, sending electric shocks up and down her spine. Mmm…

They had stopped, she wasn't sure when, but she supposed it didn't matter. They were standing on a small knoll, looking out across the river valley. On the other bank, trees marched away into the distance, rolling on before fading into nothingness along a horizon cloaked in grey. She looked to her right, and saw dark grey clouds, heavy with snow, rolling up from the southwest. She looked to her left, and watched as a boat trawled along the river, a long man bundled in furs, working a pole in a slow, steady rhythm.

It really is nice here…

It always amused her, when she thought that. Her first trip through the Earth Kingdom had been anything but pleasant, and even this one was fraught with tension, danger, and darkness, never quite out of sight. But at least this time, she got to stop occasionally, and really appreciate how beautiful it all was. Even in the midst of war, with chaos and madness hemming them in from every side, it was still…

The world is still a decent place, and worth fighting for…

"Babe?" That was her.

"Hmm?" came the reply.

"Let's stay for the Winter Solstice."

"Okay."

"I know it'll mean we've stayed longer than we normally would, but…I just want to see it."

"I said okay!"

She tore her head from his shoulder and looked up into those eyes, those beautiful eyes. Even the dead one. For, that was a secret of Katara's:

She thought the dead one was more beautiful than the living one.

That was the only thing she had never told him. It just a little something, just for herself.

"I love you," she said.

"I love you, too," he replied.

They kissed, and it made her toes curl in her boots. Then they went back to snuggling, and watching the clouds roll by.

And if he thinks that Song hasn't told me about the package Toshiro dropped off the other day, he's a bigger idiot than I ever thought possible.

Not that she minded. She had no doubt that she would be appropriately surprised and emotional, when the time came.

So, this is a realization I had, right in the middle of writing this chapter: As an exiled prince, stripped of his position (as far as he knows), and, what is more, legally dead, Katara, as the daughter of a chief, is actually the person with the higher social status in the relationship. The more I thought about that, the more I liked it. A trope that pops up far too often in Zutara fics is the people involved obsessing over Katara's supposedly low status. Only, even in Canon, she's not really a mere peasant, is she? The her people's equivalent of royalty.

*shrugs* I dunno, I just like the idea that, in this fic, at least, Katara isn't worrying about how much lower she is than Zuko. Kind of nice, don't you think? And it's a change that I, at least, didn't even know I'd made.

I love it when I outsmart myself.

Moving on, and completely ignoring that little teaser at the bottom: In the next chapter, Suki feels the need to clear something up with Sokka. Stay tuned!