"Zuko?"
Katara's heart does a strange swooping motion in her chest at the sound of his name coming from the strangers mouth. How do they know each other? She's really pretty…
"What are you doing here?" Zuko doesn't look particularly glad to see the woman standing before them, but a raging jealousy is making its way up Katara's throat regardless.
"I live here. After I left Ember I travelled for a while before meeting Ty Lee." The girl dressed in pink waves at them all. "And she brought me back here."
"Have you seen Azula?" All the envy drains from her in a single moment at the pleading look in Zuko's eyes.
"No." His face drops like a stone, and Katara rests her hand on his arm in a show of comfort. "I haven't seen her since I left."
"Oh," he sighs, and she can almost see the weight of his guilt sitting on his shoulders. She rubs his arm, and when he turns to look her in the eye there's so much pain hidden behind the golden glow that it almost makes her want to cry.
"How do you two know each other?" Suki has no doubt picked up on Zuko's distress, her perceptive eyes narrowed in his direction.
"Mai was a friend of my sisters. She grew up with us in Ember until she moved away… however long ago it was."
"Seven years," Mai says and inspects her nails, disinterest clear in her tone.
"Can I interrupt?" The girl in pink slides closer to Mai, her glowing eyes almost the same shade as Aang's darting between the six of them. "I just— I've never met any Othered before, and it's so exciting to meet you all!" This girl seems to be the complete opposite of Mai, and Katara wonders how they manage to get along.
"What's your name?" She swears that she sees a blush on Aang's cheeks as he asks his question.
"Ty Lee," she responds as she practically bounds up to Aang and sticks out a delicate hand. "It's nice to meet you!" Aang is definitely blushing now, and he looks to be almost in a daze as he shakes her hand.
"Yeah, you too." Katara shares a half smile with Zuko at Aang's obvious bewilderment. "I'm Aang."
"Your eyes!" Ty Lee gets right up in Aang's face; she's shorter than Katara, and the height difference between her and Aang is almost comical. "They're so pretty!"
"Oh, uh..." Aang's face is almost beet red. "Thanks. Yours are too!"
"Not another one." Toph mutters from beside Katara. "Love sick idiots."
"Oh!" Before Katara knows it, Ty Lee is very close to her face, her smile bright and eyes wide. "Your eyes are so blue! Wow, I've never seen anything so beautiful!" Katara feels her own blush creep up her cheeks at the compliment. "And yours are so unique!" She's inspecting Zuko's eyes now, but she's considerably farther away from his face than she was to Aang's, even though the two men are almost the same height. "I thought there were four of you?"
"Yeah, I'm the fourth." Toph blows at her bangs from the corner of her mouth.
"Oh!" Ty Lee walks up to Toph. "Can I see your eyes?" The younger girl keeps her bangs long to hide the dampened glow, but she pushes them back with a flush of her own. "Wow, that's incredible! They're so pretty!"
"Yeah, yeah." Toph lets her bangs fall back into place above her eyes. "What's your gift?"
"I can see people's auras!" Silence permeates the group, and Katara sees Mai roll her eyes.
"They don't know what auras are, Ty Lee."
"Oh, right. Sorry, I'm just so excited to meet you all!" Her smile is bright and contagious, and Katara's mouth tilts up at the corners. "Auras are almost like… well, it's hard to describe. I guess it's sort of like your emotions, but not exactly. More like your energy, I guess. I see auras as different colors, so whatever emotions are dominating your mind is the color I see around you. Colors can blend if there's a mix of emotions, and they can range anywhere for being opaque to clear, depending on the emotional energy someone has."
"That's pretty cool," Suki says from where she stands next to Sokka. "Can you tell if people are lying, then?"
"Only if it's a big lie, or if what they're saying really contradicts their emotions. If I concentrate I can see more than just the dominating emotions, but it takes a lot of energy and tires me out pretty fast."
"Oh! What color am I?" Aang asks, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet.
"Your aura is a pale yellow right now, which means that you're happy! It looks like all Othered have a kind of shimmer in their aura, almost like silk when it catches the light. I never knew, but now that there are so many of you here, it's an obvious similarity. This is so cool!"
"Oh, do me next!" Sokka's hand shoots into the air as if Ty Lee can't see him standing not ten feet away from her.
"Your aura is sort of a greenish yellow right now. So you're happy, but you're also curious!"
"Wait," Toph moves her hand up into the air in a stopping gesture. "What did you mean by emotional energy?"
"Oh, well that's like if you're feeling emotionally drained or something. I guess a good example is right after people wake up, the cloudiness of their aura reflects on the dreams they had the night before. So if they had a bad dream, their aura would be cloudy."
"Oh. I thought it was going to be cooler than that." Toph sniffs and rubs her nose, unaware of the pout that's formed on Ty Lee's face.
"This is so boring." Mai's shoulders slump with a heavy sigh. "You all have elemental gifts, right? Why don't you give us a demonstration? That should liven things up a little."
They move as a group out towards the courtyard, but Katara holds Zuko back. "Are you okay?"
"I'm alright." He scrubs his face with his hand, pushing his hair out of his eyes before continuing. "It's just weird seeing someone from my past. And Azula…" He doesn't have to continue for Katara to understand why he's upset.
"It's gonna be okay, Zuko." She takes his hand in a bold gesture and does her best to still her raging heart. "After all of this is over, I'll help you find her."
"What?" His golden eyes hold an intensity she's never seen in them before. "Katara, don't say that. She's probably back in Ember, and I can't go there. You don't have to help me."
"I know I don't have to." She tries to match the energy in his eyes. "I want to. She's important to you, and I want to help you find her and keep her safe. No matter how hard it is." His eyes soften, hard gold melting into liquid sunshine, the lines on his face disappearing in what looks like awe, and what is definitely affection.
"Katara..." He's closer than she had realized, so close that if he leaned in and she lifted up onto her toes—
"Hey!" Sokka's disembodied shout splits them apart, Zuko's warm hand dropping from hers right before her brother pokes his head out from around a corner. "Are you guys coming or what?"
She can feel blood rushing to her cheeks, and when she peeks up at Zuko from under her lashes she sees that his face is tinted red just like hers. He rubs the back of his neck, a nervous gesture of his, and clears his throat before making brief eye contact and walking away before she can manage to push any words out of her stubborn mouth. A deep sigh brings her shoulders down into a slump before she pulls herself together and heads out to the courtyard with the others. Stupid Sokka with his stupid bad timing.
Toph is putting on an impressive display of her mastery over her element while the others stand and watch from the sidelines. Ty Lee is bright eyed and openmouthed, awe clear on every part of her face, but Mai doesn't look very impressed. Maybe that's how she is all the time. Sokka has taken his place back by Suki's side on one of the stone benches bordering the courtyard, and Zuko sits down next to Aang a little further away. She sees him nudge the younger boy's ribs with an elbow, to which Aang blushes and rubs his neck after shooting a shy glance at Ty Lee's back.
"Twinkletoes!" Toph's voice startles Aang out of his daze, and he jumps a little next to Zuko. "Your turn."
Katara lets her heart guide her feet and takes Aang's previous place next to Zuko. He turns towards her with a smile, the simple stretch of his lips enough to turn her heart into a hummingbird within the cage of her ribs. Ty Lee 'oohs' and 'ahhs' at Aang's demonstration, but Mai's face is placid as ever.
She leans over closer to Zuko and tries to keep her voice low. "Is she always like that?"
"Pretty much, yeah. Some things never change." There's a distance in his tone, his voice coming from somewhere farther away than where he sits next to her.
"You guys should go up together!" A slightly sweaty Aang is walking back towards them with a massive smile on his face, and a mischievous look in his shining eyes. "It's so cool watching you spar, you guys compliment each other so well!" Katara narrows her eyes at Aang, but he's the king of faux-innocent meddling, and his face doesn't change a bit.
"Yeah, give us a show!" Both she and Zuko turn to glare at Toph, but their frustration is lost on her.
"Oh, that sounds like fun! I'd love to see how you guys fight together!" Ty Lee may not know where Zuko and Katara stand with each other, but her plea has them rising and taking their places across from each other in the courtyard.
They don't spar very much anymore; they work together for the most part, honing their skills to work better as a team, and there's an electric charge spanning the space between them across the courtyard. A tense moment passes before either of them move, and her heart is beating like mad in her chest before she even takes a step. In the span of a breath Zuko has conjured his fire, flames stretching between his hands as he pulls them apart in front of his face before sending a fiery wave towards Katara. Water slides out of the skin at her hip with a twist of her wrist, a thick stream cutting the firewall in two and leaving space for her to run between the halves towards Zuko. Plumes of fire fly towards her one after the other as he punches out a volley, but she evades them by skating along a curve of ice that she freezes in front of her and melts behind her as she goes. She races towards him, her water snaking below her feet while balls of flame shoot past her in hot bursts, before surfing around him in an arc. Her movement is too fast for him to keep up with, so he drops to the ground and windmills his legs around, spraying fire from his feet in all directions. The ice below her hisses as it turns to steam, and she's forced to jump and roll in order to land on her feet. She collects the steam before it dissolves into the air and hurls it at Zuko, freezing it halfway into sizable ice darts. With a shout Zuko creates a sphere of flare around him and pushes it out, melting her ice and forcing her back towards her starting point. Water elongates and stretches from her hands into massive whips, and they clash with Zuko's own whips of fire blow for blow, sending steam into the air in hissing clouds, the collision of their elements creating a haze in the air above them. She waits until the perfect moment before sending one of her whips rushing along the ground, a writhing snake that she freezes up the length of Zuko's body before he can react. Their eyes lock; the heat in his gaze is something she's only seen in her wildest dreams, and it makes her sweat more than his fire ever has. The ice melts around him with his rising body temperature, his eyes never leaving hers, exposing her down to the nerve and making even the slightest breeze feel like a vicious gale. Katara catches the steam and uses it to knock his legs out from under him the moment his legs are free, and he lands hard on his back on the stone courtyard. Her chest heaves with the effort of drawing air into her lungs, and she sees Zuko's rising and falling rapidly from where he lies prone on the ground.
"Wow!" Katara pants hard around gasping breaths, Ty Lee's word of admiration overshadowed by intense desire and quickly draining adrenaline. "That was incredible! You guys really do compliment each other well." Zuko lifts up on to his elbows to look at her, cheeks rose-kissed and lips parted with exertion; the urge to kiss him is an almost untamable thing, wild and thrashing in her very bones, and it's hot, so hot she thinks she might melt, and maybe she's going to hell, but she wants to.
"Okay!" Toph's abrasive tone plucks her from her stupor, and Zuko's polished gold eyes snap away from her and towards their loud friend. "That's enough of that."
An invisible force pulls her towards Zuko, the tide coming in and dragging her with it until she's standing in front of him. Something about how he looks up at her stirs a shivering desire in her gut, but she reaches out her hand to help him up before it can get the best of her. His hand is hot in her grip and his touch is nothing short of electric, charging through her veins and forcing the hairs on the back of her neck to mirror him as he rises. Their bodies are close, so close that she can feel the heat rolling off of him in shimmering waves, and try as she might, she can't control the way her eyes trace the slight taper of his waist and the broad expanse of his chest. The lines that meld into the column of his neck are smooth until they hit the sharpness of his jaw, and when her eyes finally land on his face, she finds him staring right back at her.
Sokka clears his throat, and the tripwire between them goes slack as they practically jump apart. Her brother stands on the sidelines with his arms crossed in front of his chest and a single eyebrow raised, a smirk barely tugging at the corner of his lips. Suki doesn't bother hiding her smirk, and neither does Toph, but at least Aang has the decency to pretend to kick an errant pebble around with the toe of his shoe. Mai's face is blank, but even her brows are raised slightly, and Ty Lee's glowing eyes are bouncing between her and Zuko as if watching them play a game of volleyball. It's clear that whatever that interaction was between her and Zuko hadn't gone unnoticed, and if her face wasn't flushed before, it definitely is now. I didn't think I was that obvious…
"Right. Well." She fists her hands in the hem of her shirt, tugging out invisible wrinkles and smoothing imaginary imperfections from the surface. "That's that, then."
Zuko's hand drifts up to its home on the back of his neck as they shuffle awkwardly off the courtyard, a stiff silence replacing the mist that had previously hung in the air as evidence of their spar. She hears Sokka strike up a meaningless conversation with someone, but her ears are full of cotton, her concentration altered by the residual excitement that's making her fingers twitchy and her lips tingle. She wants to look at him, to see if the lightning is still sparking along Zuko's nerves like it is hers, but she doesn't dare. They walk back into Paindao's castle as a group, and Katara makes sure to position herself away from Zuko, even if she isn't listening to a damn thing anybody around her is saying. He splits off from the group before they get to the common area; she's bewitched by the shifting of the muscles on his back as he moves, by the prominent veins in his arms when he clenches his fists. Her eyes definitely don't drift downward to the strong muscles of his thighs, absolutely not getting caught on the gentle swell of his-
"Yo, Sugarqueen!" A strange noise gets caught in the back of her throat before she can whip her head around to focus on where she's going. "Damn, someone needs to get laid."
"Toph!" She hates that the word is a screech as it leaves her mouth, and hates even more that Toph dissolves into an obnoxious laughter at her distress.
"Ew, can we please not talk about my sister and sex in the same sentence? Like, ever?" Sokka's voice is surprisingly calm, and it boils her blood even more.
"I— will you guys stop talking about me like I'm not even here?!" she counters. Suki's eyes are affectionate when she meets Katara's, but there's still amusement hiding in the tilt of her lips.
"Oh, sweetie, your aura is all muddled right now." Ty Lee's sing-song tone is grating on her sensitive nerves, the pet name far too familiar for someone she just met a few hours ago. "Maybe you should go lie down?"
"Alright, fine! You all suck!" The words explode from her mouth, having crawled up her throat like some desperate animal fighting to escape her grasp.
Aang calls after her as she stalks away, but there's no way she's turning back to face the teasing of her friends. If she didn't know better, she'd think that there was smoke coming out of her ears as she hustles through the halls of the castle; a volatile mixture of anger, embarrassment, and confusion roils in her stomach on her way to the washroom. Maybe a nice hot shower will help me relax. But it seems the universe has other plans for her, a shameless frustrated groan pulling up from her throat when she hears the already running water just a handful of paces from the door. She turns on her heel and makes her way to the other washroom as fast as she can, shoving thoughts of Zuko (who had definitely been in the shower) out of her mind with a ferocity that morphs into a pounding headache as she reaches the other washroom. This one only has a large, claw foot wash tub, not the fancy contraption that Zuko is using. Stop thinking about him in the shower!
Steam fills the room as hot water rushes into the basin, and soon Katara is sinking into the cradle of softly scented warmth, the water rising until it stops just under her shoulders when she leans back. Her eyes drift closed, only for her to be bombarded by images of her and Zuko's fight before she snaps them open again. Stupid Toph. Stupid Sokka. Stupid Zuko and his stupid muscles and his stupid smile and his stupid, beautiful eyes. Her groan is pathetic, less filled with anger and more composed of shame and a deep, stinging longing that refuses to give her peace. Bubbles rise from the surface as she lowers her head below the water, and she doesn't rise again until her lungs are screaming for air.
Xx
Katara sits in the courtyard, the autumn chill seeping through her tunic as a breeze carries the sound of Ty Lee's voice to her ears. "So… How long have you been in love with him?" The girl has a kind face, all wide glowing eyes and rounded cheeks.
"Listen, you're really nice, but this is kind of none of your business." Normally she has an aversion to rudeness, but after the day she's had, it's just too much to try and feign politeness.
"You're right." Ty Lee sits down next to her and rests her hands between her thighs. "I just… you seem sad. And I know we know each other hardly at all, but I don't like seeing people sad." Maybe it's the softness of Ty Lee's tone, or maybe it's the aching fullness in Katara's heart, but suddenly she can't hold it all back anymore.
"You know what? I am sad." The words are lead as they fall from her lips, a weight off her chest but still heavy in her lap. "I'm happy, but I'm sad, you know?" Ty Lee nods silently to her right. "It just sucks. I just want to tell him how I feel, but I can't risk ruining our friendship. He's my best friend." She sighs and her shoulders slump; she can feel a lump in her throat growing with each word. "He's the first friend I've ever really had, and he means so much to me, even putting aside all the romantic stuff. I'm just so conflicted; everything is swirling around in my head all at once, and everyone keeps telling me he likes me too, but I don't think he does, and then everyone teases me about it when all I want to do is scream and—" Ty Lee's gentle hand on her shoulder breaks her warbling ramble. There are tears on her cheeks; the salty fluid sticks to the heels of her palms as she scrubs at her face.
"Katara, can I be honest with you?" The other girl's voice is soothing, a salve for her sores wrapped in a neat pink package.
"As long as you'll tell me what I want to hear." The sounds coming from her mouth are more like hiccups than actual words, and a self deprecative chuckle mingles with the pathetic phrase.
"Listen," Ty Lee turns her body towards Katara's and takes both of her hands in hers. "I can see auras, right?"
"Yeah..." She's a little confused, but plays along with whatever is it that Ty Lee is trying to get at.
"And auras tell me what people are feeling, right?" Katara's nod is punctuated with a sniffle. "So you'd believe me if I told you how I think Zuko feels about you? Knowing that it's based on indisputable evidence?" She would have never expected Ty Lee to be like this— calm, collected, perceptive, and surprisingly solid.
"I guess so, yeah."
"Good. He likes you too." Hope soars in her chest despite her efforts to tamp it down. "Like, a lot. When you two were sparring earlier…" She's expecting to be made fun of, but Ty Lee's face almost looks wistful. "It was beautiful. It was almost like watching a dance." The ghost of spice and whiskey is heavy on her tongue. "I think if you guys could just talk alone, and be honest with each other, you'd both be so much happier. Your auras positively glow when you're near each other," she says, her eyes sparkling in the moonlight. "And not just because of the Othered thing." Her lighthearted giggle is surprisingly comforting, and it pulls a reluctant smile onto Katara's face.
"You think so?" She's never felt so apprehensive but so hopeful at the same time; it's a strange combination of emotions, one that has her stomach rolling inside her in a dizzying spiral.
"Yup!" Ty Lee says it so simply, like that one word encompasses all the conflicting emotions at war inside her, like it's just that simple to pack her feelings away in a neat little box and hand her bleeding heart to Zuko and hope he doesn't care about the stains.
"I don't know, Ty Lee." She tilts her head back and searches for familiar constellations. She doesn't find any.
"Just think about it, okay?"
The other girl doesn't wait for her to respond, and she walks silently back to the comfort of the castle, leaving Katara out in the chill autumn air with only her thoughts and the unknown stars littering the sky above to keep her company.