Chapter 8: The Beach
It was so peaceful to wake up feet away from her element. Katara found herself waking early to walk to the beach on Zuko's family's place at Ember Island. She swam in and bent the water in the ocean for a while, breathing in deeply the familiar smell of salt water. After the sun had been up for a bit, Katara started walking back toward the beach house to spot Zuko and Jet walking up to each other. At the last second, she decided to hide behind a wall of the house, curious to see their interaction.
"Jet," Zuko nodded as he walked out the doorway and passed Jet.
"Hey Prince Hot Pants," Jet said with a smirk. "You seen my lady yet today?"
"Your lady?" Zuko said stopping.
"Katara, duh," Jet said. "We had a great time last night, but I woke up and she wasn't in my room anymore. It was nice being with her, she completely forgot your ugly face for a while."
Katara couldn't see his face, but Zuko had frozen, his whole body going stiff. "I know you lied to me before. You're not dating Katara, and even if you were you shouldn't talk about her like that," Zuko snapped.
"Just keep telling yourself that if it helps you sleep at night. Aww are you jealous, Scarface?" Jet teased. "I may not be a bender, but they knew me as the backbender in Ba Sing Se. Compared to those earth kingdom ladies, Katara's great, a real wildcat, like a beautiful water siren. I'm surprised you didn't hear us last night, things got pretty loud."
Zuko turned to face Jet, and Katara hadn't seen him so angry in a long time, his eyes were narrowed and had dangerous look in them. He breathed out an angry breath of flames, pulling out his dual dao blades. "She's way too good for you Jet," Zuko said. "Tell her the truth. You've been lying since you got here."
Jet laughed in response, pulling out his hook swords. "You're too damn predictable," Jet said. "Like you're any better for her?"
"Katara can be with whoever she wants to be with," Zuko said.
Jet made a rude gesture at him. "Maybe I'll let you have her when I'm done with her," Jet said.
Zuko's eyes widened, and then he lunged toward Jet, his hand sparking for a moment as he used firebending to ignite Jet's wheat that was sticking out of his mouth. The wheat burned up, the tiny remnants floating away in the breeze. "I've been wanting to do that for a while," Zuko said.
"I can't believe you just did that, Scarface!" Jet said. "You're really touchy over someone who could never love you. Fire Nation scum. Your kind killed her mother."
Then suddenly Zuko was fully attacking Jet, his blades swinging threateningly at him. All that was on his mind was defending Katara's honor from this sick boy. On the edge of his mind, he heard Katara yelling, "Stop!" and running out toward them from the side of the house, but Zuko was beyond being reasoned with. Jet had this coming for a long time. Jet darted away from his blades, ducking and spinning as he stopped Zuko from a swing toward his face. Jet pushed his swords away, bending and trying for a leg sweep with one of his hooks. Zuko blocked it with his blade with a resounding "CRACK!"
Dimly Zuko heard voices behind them, but Jet was running away, and Zuko was chasing him, throwing fire blasts. Jet yelped as a blast bit at his ankles.
"Why are they trying to kill each other?" Zuko heard Sokka yelling from across the house.
"Now this is a fight," Toph said.
Jet suddenly darted into a side door, and Zuko practically blasted the door down with his fire, chasing after him. As Jet blocked a blow aimed at his chest, he bumped into a china cabinet, plates and teacups falling around them. Jet pushed part of the cabinet at Zuko, and Zuko blasted through it with a fist of flames, ceramics clattering on the ground and shattering around him. Zuko tried stabbing through Jet with a sword into the wall he leaned on, but Jet ducked at the last moment, Zuko's sword sweeping a deep cut along the wall. Jet had continued down the hall, and Zuko threw a spiral of flames at him suddenly. Jet had to face him and spin his hooks to deflect it, gasping at the heat. He turned and darted out the other end of the house, Zuko following after him.
Jet ran toward the tree-line, Zuko continuing to blast fire at him. Jet used his hooks to pull himself up into the trees, swinging from one to another to get away from the murderous firebender. Zuko shot fireballs up at him, trying to be careful to not catch the trees on fire. He blasted a branch that Jet was standing on, and Jet was falling, trying to stop himself by gripping the trunk on the way down, his hooks streaking long lines down the bark. Zuko was at the bottom waiting for him. He ran at him with a flaming sword, and Jet barely dodged, Zuko's blade getting wedged deeply into the trunk. He jerked it back out, dancing away from a hook to the face. Zuko used his sword to aim a fireblast at a retreating Jet, the lanky teen cursing as he narrowly avoided being burnt. Zuko followed Jet toward the beach in front of the house, but suddenly Jet swung from his swords out on a tree trunk, kicking Zuko hard in the side. Zuko landed hard, the air knocked out of him for a moment.
Jet's hook almost stabbed Zuko in the face, but Zuko rolled out of the way, then did a sweeping kick, spinning his body and legs with his hands, a circular blast of flames streaming from his feet as he flipped his body up into a standing crouch. Jet had to block this with a spin of one of his blades again, running toward the lapping water of the beach. Zuko followed, heaving in breaths angrily.
They faced each other across their sandy arena, Zuko sensing their friends standing off to the side near the beach house. "Please stop!" Katara was screaming.
"You gonna listen to mom and stop fighting me now, Scarface?" Jet taunted just loudly enough for Zuko to hear. Zuko's eyes hardened as he ran at him again. Jet suddenly pulled something out of his belt at his side, a flash of silver that he jabbed suddenly into Zuko's ribs. A ribbon of pain shot through Zuko, and he yelled as he punched a flame blast into Jet's stomach, his fist connecting hard with Jet. Jet went sprawling across the sand, his limbs splayed out at his sides. Zuko stood, waiting, but Jet didn't get back up. Then Zuko fell onto the sand. He heard a desperate, "Zuko!" that sounded like Katara. The last thing he saw was brilliant blue eyes staring into his in concern.
He woke shortly after, still on his side on the beach.
"He was trying to kill Jet!" Sokka was saying angrily
"They were mutually trying to kill each other," Katara said defensively back.
"Oh, that makes it allllll fine doesn't it?" Sokka mocked.
"I've never seen Sparky so angry before," Toph said. "Sugar Glider must have done something to really upset him."
"Yes, Jet was trying to antagonize him!" Katara said. "I know they both fought, but Jet definitely started this, Zuko was being all friendly to him and then Jet …" Katara broke off and couldn't finish the sentence. Zuko sat up groaning, looking at her in concern. Then he noticed, his shirt was off, and her hands were brushing along his chest. Zuko flushed bright red, Katara blushing too as their eyes connected, she jerked her hands away from him.
"Katara," Zuko said. "Why did you take my shirt off?" Katara pointed next to him, and Zuko stared at the bloody cloth for a moment, blinking. "Oh," he said.
Her hands went back to his chest, gently rubbing against a thin scar along the bottom of his right ribs. "It wasn't big, but it was pretty deep. He missed any vital organs," Katara said sighing.
"How's Jet?" Zuko turned to look at the other teen, a mixture of guilt and anger on his face. Katara stared at Zuko, not saying a word. Everyone stayed silent. "What?" Zuko said.
"You idiot!" Katara said suddenly. "You …!" She stood up, grabbing her head and pacing back and forth, then suddenly she pulled a wave of water toward them, the water jerking Zuko straight up in front of her. It was a strange feeling, being surrounded by her water like this, but he didn't really fear her anymore. Not that she wasn't scary, but he trusted her now. Her water flowed around him, lightly holding his limbs up, and she stared him down, his gold connected with her bright blue eyes. "Why do you care how Jet is?" she said fiercely.
Zuko gulped, thinking his words over carefully. "I was so mad because of what he said about you, but I wouldn't forgive myself if I actually physically hurt him …or killed him." Zuko hung his head in shame. "I shouldn't have let him get to me like that, but the things he said!" he huffed out angrily. His face shifted with a sly smile, "Is he dead?" Zuko said hopefully. Katara laughed, the water falling from Zuko in a rush. He caught himself on his feet lithely. She ran at him, then leaned into him, hugging him suddenly. Zuko sighed in relief as he hugged her back.
"He's fine," Katara said. "Seriously," she said with a laugh, bending the water away from Zuko's dripping clothes with a flick of her wrist. "I'm glad you knocked him out, but couldn't you have roughed him up a bit more?" she joked.
Zuko pulled back, looking into her eyes. "You heard what he said, didn't you?"
"Every word, unfortunately," Katara said in a clipped tone. "None of it was true!" she suddenly got out in a rush. "I-I would never …! I mean not with him!" her face and ears were red with embarrassment. "After what I heard, I would have tried to kill him myself if you hadn't."
"I know, Katara," Zuko reassured her, actually feeling relieved at her words. He hadn't been entirely sure how she felt about Jet. He realized he didn't really need to tell her about Jet's lie anymore, she'd heard it from him herself now. Jet had put the nail in his own coffin where Katara was concerned. Of course the truth had to come out.
Toph coughed suddenly from the side. Katara and Zuko pulled away from each other, both blushing as they realized they were embracing in front of all of their friends. "As heart-warming as this moment is, can you two get a room or something? Even muffled from the sand, this image is nauseating," Toph said with a fake gag.
Suki giggled from behind her hand. "You two are so cute together! Fire and water, who would have thought?"
"Suki!" Katara said, feeling betrayed. "I …! We're not together yet!"
Zuko's eyebrow went up at that. "Yet?" Sokka screamed. "You and Jerkbender?" Sokka was looking back and forth between Zuko and Katara, appearing a bit lost.
"Of course," Jet mumbled irritably, from his spot leaning in the sand.
Aang stood silently off to the side from the rest, his face dark, his eyes losing their usual spark.
"We're just … still getting to know each other," Katara said honestly.
"Why don't we all cool down and have a beach party today?" Suki said after a long awkward pause, trying to distract and lift everyone's spirits. "We haven't been somewhere with such a nice beach in a long time," she said.
"Beach party!" Sokka yelled, running up to the beach house to get supplies.
"Sounds good to me," Toph said.
"I'm in!" Katara said excitedly.
Even Zuko felt excited at the idea of just hanging out with his new group of friends at the beach for a bit. It was still quite some time before the comet
Later that afternoon, Katara was showing Zuko how to surf. "I think part of the problem," Zuko said, "is trying to surf on an ice board. I know I could do it, but I can't get a grip, my feet just keep sliding off." He gestured angrily at the icy board.
Katara laughed and said, "I could freeze your feet to the board."
Zuko scoffed, "That does not sound like a good idea."
"I could just strap you onto the board with ice and waterbend you around on it!" Katara said excitedly.
Zuko stared at her, unamused. Katara laughed at his expression.
They continued their attempts, and Zuko eventually did ride a few waves. He looked over to his side to see her riding a wave next to him, her face focused and happy, her hair waving all around her. He was so distracted that he crashed violently into a wave. He swam up for air, Katara staring at him in concern. He spit water out, spluttering for air, and Katara looked amused as he rubbed water off his face.
She swam up to him, smoothing his hair with soft strokes. "There!" she said satisfied. "Your hair was all spiky. Kind of cute though," she smiled at him. "I definitely like your hair more at this length, it really suits you."
He blushed, "Uhhhh thanks." He rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed. Katara stared him down with a grin. "What?" he said.
"You're the type that can't take a compliment, aren't you?" she said. "It's so sweet. You'd think you'd be all princely with an ego as big as the walls of Ba Sing Se, but you're actually really humble."
Zuko felt his heart quicken at the praise. "Uhhhhh," he said, at a loss for words.
"You really do care about others, even though you try to act all tough, you're even sweet with animals. Momo and Appa love you. And with Jet today, you were so concerned that you hurt him, even after what he said about me."
Zuko blinked slowly. "Yeah. I mean, I've never wanted to hurt anyone. Especially not the defenseless. I love animals, my mom and I always used to feed the turtleducks together in a pond at the palace."
Katara practically made heart eyes at him. "You fed turtleducks!"
Zuko flushed, his cheeks turning pink. "Well I mean yeah, I was younger, it was before I was banished, before she … left," he said.
"Oh, I'm sorry Zuko," Katara said. "Maybe once this is all over, you can show me this pond, and we can feed turtleducks together."
"I would like that, Katara," Zuko said with a smile, "I would really like that."
It was almost sunset, and Katara lay on the edge of the surf, the water lapping up to the backs of her legs.
She heard footsteps approach from her side, and she turned to see Zuko. "Typical waterbender," he scoffed jokingly.
"What do you mean?" Katara said.
"Well, you don't see me laying in lava all the time," Zuko said.
"You can do that?" she said seriously.
"Uhhhh not really. I mean we can take some heat, but not quite that much." He cringed inwardly at himself due to her not getting his attempt at a joke. Katara could be a bit innocent at times, but he found it cute. "Mind if I sit with you?" Zuko said.
"Of course!" she said, sitting up and patting the space next to her. He looked a bit irritated at the water lapping at the sand she patted. "I can dry it off of you later," Katara promised.
He raised an eyebrow at her and she grabbed his arm, pulling him down next to her. He stumbled a bit and sat, trying to keep space between them to not make her uncomfortable. She scooted close to him, their legs touching, her hand still on his. Zuko sat frozen in place. She absentmindedly rubbed circles onto the back of his hand, smiling happily to herself.
"I was going to ask you," Zuko said. "Since you told Jet today that you would never train with him again, and you never want to be alone with him ever again," he said with amusement in his voice, "would you be open to sparing with me? We could do bending or non-bending, whatever you feel like. It would be good practice, we can run through team drills even. I mean, I understand if you don't want to and …"
"That sounds good," Katara said, interrupting him with a smile.
Zuko smiled at her, looking relieved. After a few moments of them both staring at the waves, he pulled a mango out of his pocket to eat, and he noticed her eyeing it. "Want half of it?" he offered.
"Sure!" Katara said. She watched as he pulled a dagger with an inscription on it from his belt. He swiftly cut the mango in half with it, giving her part to her. "What does that dagger say?" she said as she started eating the mango. Zuko moved the dagger closer for her to see. "Never give up without a fight," she read aloud.
"It was a gift from my Uncle," Zuko said, cleaning the blade and putting it away, then starting to eat the mango.
Katara noticed his sad expression at the mention of Iroh. "You miss him?" Katara said.
Zuko nodded and said, "I never realized just how important to me he was until I went off on my own, before we went to Ba Sing Se. He helped keep me sane in the prison. It's hard splitting up with him after we've been through so much together, but I know he has things he needs to take care of before the comet comes."
"Do you have any idea where exactly he went, or what he went to do?" Katara asked.
"Like my Uncle mentioned, he was planning on traveling to the Earth Kingdom," Zuko said. Iroh had told him about The White Lotus while they were in prison together, and he hated keeping it from her, but Zuko had promised to not disclose information to anybody about the secret group. "I don't know all of the details, but he has his own mission, and I have mine here training the Avatar."
"It must have been hard, coming to us alone without a real plan," Katara said.
"It was hard, but I knew I was doing the right thing," Zuko said. "And like I said before, I'm so much more at peace with myself now. I know I'm helping do everything we can to stop the war. I can't undo the past, but I can try to help make a better future."
Katara stared at him, almost feeling like she was really seeing him for the first time. He had a determined look in his gold eyes as he turned them to her. At that moment, she didn't just see Zuko, she saw the future Fire Lord. "Zuko, what will you do to make a better future? When you become Fire Lord," she said. Because that's what this was all about, their plan to defeat Ozai was nothing without a replacement. Katara had been thinking a lot about this lately due to her time spent with Zuko. In supporting Zuko training the Avatar, they were in a way supporting him becoming the next Fire Lord.
His eyes widened slightly in surprise. The words replayed in his head 'Zuko, what will you do to make a better future? When you become Fire Lord.' Not if, but when. Though he had thought about this a bit, he had focused so much on the before part, actually taking down his father and sister, he hadn't thought much about the after. He did think Team Avatar would win, but the odds were stacked against them. He was thankful to Katara for leaving no room in the question for any doubt.
"Whatever it takes," he said. "I want the nations to be at peace again. We use four different elements, but we are all human beings, all just trying to survive the war. I don't want it to be about survival anymore, I want the nations to thrive, not as enemies but allies. I know it will be hard, but I'm willing to put in the work with Aang, my uncle, and all of you. I'm sure we can do it together," he said, his eyes finding hers.
At his words, Katara felt a new hope tugging in her heart. Not just hope of the Avatar, but hope in this young man. She could see his potential, could see him leading the Fire Nation away from the ways of Ozai, Azulon, and Sozin. "Of course, we can," she said with a smile. "Want to walk on the beach with me, future Fire Lord?" Katara enjoyed the moment of shock on his face, before he gave her a shy nod. She grabbed his hand to pull him up onto the sand with her.
Zuko felt a stirring deep in his heart. For a long time, it had been him and Iroh against the world. As he let Katara pull him up to walk on the sand with her, he realized it was nice to have someone else believe in him.
Later, Katara and Zuko walked back into the beach house together. She still had a hold of Zuko's hand, and noticed when their friends all turned to look at them. She slowly let go of his hand and they inched away from each other.
Jet was staring at them with a strange look. "Do you two know where my mango went? I thought it was Momo again, but it strangely disappeared when Zuko left earlier," Jet said suspiciously.
"Aw thank you Jet!" Katara said too sweetly. "That mango Zuko and I shared was delicious!"
Jet turned his accusing glare to Zuko. "I knew it was you!"
"Seems like Zuko's stolen more than just your mango," Toph said quietly.
Katara grabbed another fruit off the table and threw it to Jet suddenly. "Why don't you just have a papaya instead?"
Jet caught it and grumpily said, "Fine! I hope you two lovebirds enjoy your mango kisses. I'm gonna go savor my papaya in my room." He stomped away dramatically, slamming his door behind him.
"Savor his papaya!" Sokka guffawed. "Never heard it described like that before." Sokka almost fell out of his chair laughing.
"Never heard what described like that?" Aang said.
Sokka wiped tears from his eyes and said, "Oh nothing Aang."
"What?" Aang said looking around the room, but everyone avoided eye contact with him.
Author's Note: Apparently FF .net has been having a lot of issues with glitching? Sometimes I see that someone has reviewed, but it doesn't show up for a long time...and someone sent me some messages about chapters not showing up, etc. Hopefully these issues have been resolved? Anyways, thank you for any follows/faves/reviews! I seriously appreciate it!