Here we go. This one's extra long, made for a prompt I gave to the katarazuko LJ community. It's not the most original story idea, but I had fun writing it on the spur of the moment.
Spoilers: The Western Air Temple
Initial word count: 1900
Summary: The group plays Truth or Dare. There's truths, and there's dares, and sometimes it's hard to tell which is which.
Games
we were all in love, and we all got hurt
"This is for Toph, then."
The ceramic flask twirled under Teo's hand (none of the benders were allowed to spin the flask themselves, to minimize the cheating) and after an agonizing final circle, stopped in front of Katara. Zuko called on all his royal training not to wilt as he saw it. Toph had been waiting three times now and the prince knew the oncoming scene would be either hilarious or devastating, given the frequent rivalry between the girls. No punches would be pulled, especially with what Katara had made Toph go through two turns before.
The black-haired earthbender turned her face to where she knew Katara was sitting, and said in a sing-song voice straight from the depths of some forsaken spirit-hell, "Ka-ta-raaaaaa. Truth or dare?"
"Truth, of course."
"Are you in love with someone here?"
Katara opened her mouth and then closed it again, a few times. She even sputtered. She glanced everywhere except at Aang. Then she refused to answer. Zuko, chin resting in hand, looked around from Toph to Katara to Aang and felt profound gladness that he'd escaped being chosen. Watching this unfold was painful already. The young Avatar's eyes shined with anticipation, Toph was smug, and Katara somehow contrived to look murderous and terrified at the same time.
The older girl changed her mind, crunching her teeth: "Dare."
Toph sat back and smiled. "I dare you... to kiss Zuko. On the lips, for real."
Zuko's chin fell out of his hand and his elbow slipped off its perch on his knee, the end result being that his upper body collapsed forward inelegantly and his elbow knocked painfully into the marble floor. He sat up quickly again, ramrod straight. Katara's face had taken on the hue and appearance of a volcano, Sokka kept busy waving his hands in denial, Aang was shocked into muteness, Haru had raised his eyebrows, Teo's head jerked wildly as he looked back and forth at everyone, and Toph might as well have been sitting on a throne.
"No way!"
"C'mon Katara," Toph goaded her. "Kiss Zuko or answer the question. Or quit and run away like a pig-chicken. That's the rules."
Zuko sent a glance to Sokka; the boy looked like he wanted to argue but was biting his tongue, half-way won over by the logic of that argument. Katara wasn't.
"Oh, and you'd know?" the waterbender replied, giving her worst glare to the only person guaranteed not to appreciate it. "Like you've ever played spin-the-flask before tonight, Miss I Grew Up On Golden Bed Sheets. You're making these rules up."
"Well that's how we used to play it with the Freedom Fighters," the Duke added helpfully (or spitefully, Zuko figured) from off to the left of the circle, snuggled in Appa's legs. He'd been banished there after an uncomfortable discussion of where the line of "appropriate age" was drawn, a discussion made doubly awkward by the fact that no one was prepared to tell Toph Bei Fong she couldn't play with the older kids, and once you let Toph in Aang qualified too. Plus, it was better with six than four. Everyone agreed that The Duke was sitting out, though, and better yet should go play with Appa somewhere else. The Duke had since coaxed the bison close enough to eavesdrop on the game. He said, confident that the older kids were hanging on his every word, "You either answer the question or you do the dare. That's how Jet said you play."
There it lay before them, one magic name summoned like a ball of fire to dangle and dance before the circle of players: how did Jet play spin-the-flask? Were they grown up enough to play it the way the Freedom Fighters did, or would they chicken out like little kids? Everyone present had met the young rebel except Haru, and even the village-born earthbender had heard tales by now. The impression he'd left on them all had only grown since his passing. Jet would never back out of a dare, this was understood.
Still, it was a mean-spirited dare, since it was public knowledge that Katara had nothing but contempt and vitriol where the prince of the Fire Nation was concerned. That was probably the point, Zuko realized, knowing Toph was going for maximum Sugar Queen rile. Katara couldn't quit now that her honor had been called into question; this was also understood. The Fire Nation may be the only place where citizens were obsessed with honor as a national pastime, but kids everywhere knew the tacit rules of daring. If you weren't prepared to sacrifice your dignity and display your courage, you shouldn't sit down in the first place.
From his spot, Zuko was somewhat irked that not only had no one bothered to check if he though the dare was fair, but none of them had even glanced at him since Toph spoke. If there was a measure of his ineffectual status in the power hierarchy of the Avatar's troop, this was it. Even The Duke got more of a reaction.
Had anyone checked with him, the firebender would have urged Toph to reconsider the nature of her dare. He was still thinking about speaking up as they continued to argue. Katara had declared her choice of "Truth, of course," with all the airs of someone who lived in a stone-proof house made of crystal. Toph had shot that delusion down quickly (the little girl's intuition was uncanny and it frequently reminded the prince of his sister). Zuko was still pretty sure, though, that the waterbender would rather announce her love for the Avatar than kiss a boy she plainly despised. She couldn't be considering the dare. Even though it was an embarrassing way to announce your love, Katara wasn't normally shy of speaking her feelings, and it had to be better than...
"Oh, " Zuko whispered, and re-examined the girl who had threatened his life with wiser eyes.
Katara sat between Teo and her brother, ignoring Aang entirely, and looking mean enough to make paper bleed. She was going to do it; Zuko could see it on her face plain as day. And the only reason she would do it was if the answer to Toph's question was no. If it were even "I don't know," then there would be nothing wrong with saying so. But if the truthful answer was no, it meant a public humiliation for Aang. Katara believed in Aang and believed in the mission so much that she would (pretty foolishly, Zuko felt) kiss someone she despised and play it off as a joke. All to avoid announcing to the group that she was not in love with a boy who destined to save the world and besotted with the mere whisper of her name.
In the mind of someone like Katara, it was better they think her too embarrassed to confess than risk potentially breaking the Avatar's heart and injuring his already low confidence. If she said nothing, Aang still had hope and something to fight for. Zuko simultaneously admired her dedication and felt pity that she didn't think Aang strong enough to handle reality. Growing up in a noble snakepit had given the exiled teenager respect for people who spoke the truth when it mattered, like his uncle, and he'd likewise expected Katara to give her best friend the credit the kid deserved. Her silence meant she had decided on the dare, however, and there was nothing Zuko could do or say about that. He thought he should try anyway; maybe he could save them all from this fiasco.
"I protest!" said the firebender suddenly and loudly. He added, "What kind of a dare is kissing? That's not hard or dangerous."
"Shut up!" Toph and Katara chorused. "What's it going to be, Katara?" the blind girl prodded. "Answer the question, or go give the angry prince a wet smacker."
The waterbender moved her jaw up and down as if grinding Toph's words between her teeth. She stood up and crossed the small ring of stunned bodies to stand in front of Zuko, who was sitting cross-legged. He swallowed as her blue skirt swished to a halt in front of his vision, but his pride kept him from breaking the circle. No way was he going to be the first one to quit this game, not if Katara was still in after a trap like that. The prince felt two thin, warm fingers lift his chin.
"Don't think you know what this is about," Katara warned in the voice she reserved for threatening his life, and bent her body at a perfect right angle to meet Zuko's mouth with hers.
Katara's kiss was softer than Mai's or Jin's, her lips full like all the girls of her nation. She didn't move them, paralyzed by shyness or hate, but Zuko reacted naturally where she didn't. He couldn't help inclining his head upward and elongating the gentle brush of touch. Up and down, with tiny movements--he was kissing Katara the way a pretty, sad-eyed girl had taught him to kiss. When she sucked in air, he felt it, and in that brief rush of feeling Zuko forgot their situation. He forgot just long enough for him to believe that she would let go, and kiss him back.
Instead, Katara pulled away as if she'd been yanked. Upright, she looked down the dip of her nose at Zuko the way she might look at a spider. Or perhaps she simply saw him for the exiled criminal that he was? Zuko let his chin drop and returned her gaze flatly, daring her to accuse him of something. He wasn't going to apologize for knowing how to get the most out of a kiss that she was responsible for starting.
"Huh," said Toph; the syllable rang through the air with both wonderment and a dreadful finality. It reminded Zuko of a funeral bell. Nobody else was talking. In fact, nobody else was breathing.
Katara took one step backward, toward the center of the circle, and it broke the spell.
"What the hell was that?" Sokka demanded. Aang looked green in the face as Katara walked past him, flung her hair back, and sat down. As Zuko watched her go he half-listened to the others.
"That was a dare," supplied Teo, who always seemed inclined to take people's questions literally. "Should I spin the flask for Katara now?"
"Better spin it carefully," Haru said, his observant gaze darting from tribe girl to the near-giddy earthbending heiress. "She'll be out for blood."
"If I ever see something that disgusting again I'm going to vomit," added Sokka to no one in particular. "It's almost enough to put me off food."
"Katara's already had a turn," Toph pointed out. "It defaults to Zuko."
"Right..." the designated flask-spinner replied, and peered at the group for confirmation. Haru was nodding; he probably considered Zuko less frightening than Katara.
"Um, Katara," Aang attempted, but she cut him off.
"Teo! I don't care if it's Zuko's turn," the hot-faced girl growled, "Just spin the stupid flask and let's get this over with."
Obediently Teo leaned forward and set the container twirling on the temple's marble floor. All side conversation stopped as it ended pointing directly to Toph.
The firebender, whose steady gold eyes hadn't left Katara since the dare, finally turned his head and looked at the self-contented little earth girl beside him. The ceramic flask rested in his peripheral vision; it had picked exactly who he wanted, and no one noticed the short pressure burst of superheated air he'd directed beneath it.
"Toph Bei Fong."
"What do ya want, Stomps-A-Lot?"
She was impenetrable, a diminutive tower fortified by victory, but as he spoke Zuko let his view drift lazily from Toph to the dark-skinned boy across the ring.
"Truth, or dare?"