Prompt: Ambassador
Summary: the story of two ambassadors and their obsession with smirking at each other.
AN: yes I wrote this while listening to Ready For It on repeat, what about it?
in this AU, the United Republic is the equivalent of our United Nations.
I don't own anything you recognize from your tv screens. enjoy!
Katara pushes her way through the group of people lingering at the doorway and dives into her seat. With a deep breath, she begins to prepare for the next few hours. This consists of ensuring all her essential documents are in order, setting her writing utensils in front of her, pulling out a small notepad from her bag, and tying up her hair into a high bun. With a flourish, she creases her namecard and places it at the forefront of her desk, before finally looking up to scan her surroundings.
It doesn't take long for her eyes to settle on him , seeing as how he's seated directly in front of her, on the other side of the room. She taps her fingers on the desk as she wonders how they always end up in the same exact seating arrangement.
As per usual, he's scowling at the people entering the room, at the papers on his desk, at the world in general. But she notices his face relax a little when his gaze lands on her.
She leans forward and mouths silently, "Good morning, Zuko."
He leans toward her as well and mouths back, "Good morning, Katara." His lips curve upwards ever so slightly and she looks away. She was just being cordial - this room is no place to make friends.
The gavel bangs.
At the loud sound, Zuko pulls his eyes away from Katara to study the rest of the room one last time. It's a rotunda, and the domed ceiling has two skylights, one of which allows sunlight to fall perfectly on Katara and her blue blazer and white dress - not that he notices, of course. There are 4 rows of desks and chairs that curve around the room, each one slightly more elevated than the one in front of it. Nearly every chair is taken, and he smirks. It's going to be a noisy meeting, but he already knows who the two loudest speakers will be.
The gavel bangs again, twice this time, and the mindless chatter of his peers ceases. He shifts in his seat to get a better look at the chairperson, who is in the smack-dab center of the room and already looks exhausted. He recognizes the chairwoman - she's facilitated a couple of the meets he's been to. Her name is Suzi, or Suki, or Sugi. Whatever. That's irrelevant.
Wait. Is Katara smiling at the chairwoman? And the Sugi girl is smiling back! He grits his teeth. They must be friends, and Katara is a little cheat. Well, he'll be damned if he lets their friendship get in the way of his victory. He will leave this Model United Republic competition titled 'Best Delegate', and he will settle for nothing less.
Sugi stands. "Good morning, delegates and ambassadors! My name is Suki," whoops , "and I will be your Chair for the day. Should you need to talk to Aang, the Secretary-General, you will find him in room C210. As you already know, we are gathered here today to discuss and debate a hypothetical future, in which a bloodbender, Amon, has taken it upon himself to put an end to bending. More information can be found in the background guide you all should have printed before coming here. Now before we begin, let's set the ground rules." She uses her fingers to count off each rule. "No electronics may be used inside this room. Outside of unmoderated caucuses, during which time you are free to get up and talk to other delegates, do not speak unless it has been announced that it is your turn."
At this, Suki turns her head to give Katara, then Zuko, a pointed stare. Zuko rolls his eyes and he knows Katara is doing the same.
"Third, this competition is meant to be fun! It's a learning experience…"
He tunes the Chair out at this point. He's not here to have fun. He squints at the namecard of the only person in this room he will grudgingly admit is his worthy opponent.
Executive Director of URICEF (United Republic International Children's Emergency Fund)
Surprise, surprise. Katara's always signing up for roles like that. He catches her trying to read his namecard as well, so he smugly turns it to face her fully. When she realizes she's been noticed, her back snaps straight and she turns her nose up at him. She's also always looking at him with disdain for signing up for his favorite role - the Fire Lord.
He shrugs with faux helplessness, as if to say, "what else was I supposed to do?" She crosses her arms and with exaggerated movements, turns her attention back to Suki. He hears a long-suffering sigh from behind him and turns his head around.
"You and your girlfriend are back at it?" He narrows his eyes at Mai and hisses.
"She's not my girlfriend." Mai rolls her eyes in that way she does.
"If you say so. But you two have more sexual tension sitting on opposite sides of the room than we ever did sitting on the same couch." And with that, she goes back to filing her nails disinterestedly. Zuko shakes his head and turns back around. He doesn't have time to think about nonsensical things like ex-girlfriends. Or future girlfriends. Yeah, nix that thought. Suki is finally wrapping up her spiel.
"Any questions? No? Alright then, it's time for roll call." Suki marks off every nation, organization, city, and colony present.
When Katara says, "Present and voting," in that high-pitched voice of hers, he claps his hands over his ears. And when he says the same line, Katara sticks her finger close to her open mouth and pretends to gag. They sneer at each other. Suki breathes in deep.
"The quorum is 20% for this meet. Without further ado, let's begin." Zuko flexes his fingers, getting ready to raise his placard the second Suki finishes the question. "The floor is now open. Are there any motions?" Zuko's namecard shoots into the air, but he's too slow.
Suki calls out her title. "Yes, Director?"
Katara takes a second to grin at Zuko in triumph before standing up. "Thank you, Chair. I motion to set the agenda. I also motion that our first point of debate be how to tackle the Equalizer movement." Suki nods and Katara sits back down.
"Is anyone interested in seconding this motion?" Every placard in the room raises. "Motion passed." All the placards are set back on the desks - all except for Zuko's. Katara looks at it with confusion for a second before realizing she has to motion for a moderated caucus.
"Shit!" She holds her namecard up, but Suki has already called on the Fire Lord. It's his turn to smirk at her as he stands.
"Thank you, gracious Chair." Suck-up. "I motion to open a moderated caucus on the decided topic, set the speaker's list and speaking time to 90 seconds."
"Any seconds for this motion?" Once again, every card goes up, even Katara's, albeit with reluctance. "Motion passed. Fire Lord, since you opened the list, you get to choose if you speak first or last."
Zuko stares at her the entire time he pretends to think about his answer. They both know what he's going to say - it doesn't matter that he usually likes speaking first, she likes speaking last to leave an impression on the delegates, and he wants to rub his small victory in her face.
"I think I'll speak last, your honorable Chair." She grits her teeth as Zuko sits, and she raises her card.
"Sure, Fire Lord. URICEF Director?"
"I'd like to speak first, Chair."
"That's fine." Suki fills the other eight spots in the speaker's list by request, and the discussion begins. Katara stands and holds her index card with talking points close to her face.
"The Equalizers are people who believe that non-benders are oppressed and mistreated since they were born without bending. They also believe that it is their responsibility to even out the playing field by taking away bending from those who have it. It is true that, more often than not, benders are in power. And unfortunately, these people do often abuse their power, harming those who cannot protect themselves by using the elements. However, the eye-for-an-eye approach is not the way to go. It doesn't benefit anyone for people's bending to be taken away - instead, that could cause even more issues in the distant future, like causing benders to be ashamed of something they can't control either. Instead, as someone who works in close proximity with children, I propose that we reform the education system. We need to teach children that their bending doesn't make them better than anyone else, and if they don't bend, that doesn't make them inferior. We need to include more powerful and impactful non-benders in our history textbooks, such as the Kyoshi Warriors," she says, gesturing towards Suki. "And I also propose that we reach out to the Avat-"
"That's time!"
"-ar so that they can better support the non-benders who they are also sworn to protect. Thank you." She sits down, ignoring the Chair's exasperation at her clear disregard for the time call. As the other delegates speak, she keeps her head buried in her notepad, taking notes of good ideas, people she could align herself with, and starting to write possible proposals. She only looks up when they get to the tenth speaker. He's not using an index card - he never does. Show-off.
Despite her never-ending rivalry with the firebender, she tends to find herself in awe of the way he speaks during these Model UR Competitions. He exudes confidence, and even though she thinks some of his ideas come straight out of his ass, he always gives off the impression that not only does he know what he's talking about, he's the only person in the room qualified enough to talk about it. She puts a stop to her silent admiration when he begins to speak.
Although everything he's saying is in direct response to Katara's points, he takes special care to make eye contact with multiple people in the room, especially those who seem to be thinking along the same lines as him.
"While reforming education is all fine and dandy, it's not enough. And it doesn't need to be our primary focus. First of all, many benders have already lost their power. We need the best healers and bloodbenders working together to figure out a way to reverse the chi blockage. Then, we need to remember that children are not the ones fighting. Children are not the ones taking away other people's bending, nor are they the ones organizing and showing up to mass protests. Grown adults are doing that. Amon is a grown man. The protesters are adults. What we need is to amend our legal system slightly so that-"
Katara interrupts him. He's surprised, not by the fact that she did so, but at how early she's doing it. Usually, she waits until at least the second moderated caucus.
"You can't do that! You can't put the protesters in jail just because they're fighting for their basic rights to be treated like humans!"
"Director-," Suki tries to interject, but she goes unheard.
"You're the Fire Lord, aren't you? Doesn't that mean you have to care about your non-benders too? But you're ready to put them behind bars. Is that what you do for the people you love and care about? Really?"
"KATARA!" Suki bellows. It's effective, because Katara stops punching a fist into her open palm and sits back down. "It was not your turn to speak! It was the Fire Lord's." Katara squeezes her eyes shut and Zuko tries to hide a smirk at the familiar scene playing out in front of him.
"I'm sorry, Chair." Suki nods at Zuko to continue.
"Right, well, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," Katara glares at his shoulder for this, "we need to amend our legal system slightly. And to address the Director's concerns, no, I would not put protesters behind bars. However, if there are people attacking benders for no reason other than their elemental powers, or if there are people attacking non-benders for no reason other than their lack of elemental powers, they must be punished. We currently, as far as I am aware, have no laws in place to actually indict Amon, or other people who commit hate crimes, and we must rectify that as soon as possible. Thank you and I yield the rest of my time to," he pauses here, and he can see the agony on Katara's face even though they both know he would never yield even half a second to her, "the chair."
"Thank you, Fire Lord. Alright, that is the end of our first moderated caucus. To all the newbie delegates, do you guys have any questions about how this Model UR thing works so far?"
There's silence for a few seconds before a boy in the last row behind Katara raises his hand leisurely.
"Yes, Jet? Or, sorry, representative of the Freedom Fighters?"
"Yeah, actually. Do the two of them," here he points to Katara and Zuko, "usually go at it like that?"
Suki purses her lips before answering with a curt, "Yes."
"That's kinda hot," Jet says before going back to chewing on a piece of straw. Zuko's hands curl into hot fists and he can see a small cloud of frost exit Katara's mouth.
"Well then, are there any real questions before we continue?" At the blissful sound of complete silence, Suki nods. "Great. Any motions then?"
Zuko's right hand shoots into the air, waving his placard, as he scribbles a note down on a Post-It.
"Yes, Director?" Damn that girl!
"I motion to open a ten-minute long unmoderated caucus to discuss opinions on the recently finished moderated caucus."
"Any seconds?" Nearly everyone in the room seconds her motion and it's passed. Katara shuffles out of her seat and starts to snake her way through the tiny clusters of delegates, listening to every conversation for a few seconds and offering her two cents when she wants to leave an impression on a like-minded ambassador.
Eventually, though, she finally ends up in the middle of the room, which had been her destination from the start. He was already standing there and he now grins down at her. They stare at each other silently for a few seconds with stupid smiles on their face before Katara finally speaks.
"Interesting propositions you have, Fire Lord."
"I could say the same to you, Director."
"Why don't you then?"
"Because I'd be lying," he says with a smug look she wants to slap off his face. Her own smile wilts.
"You're infuriating." He hums before placing a neatly folded Post-It on top of the notepad she's carrying around like a tablet, before stepping around her and seamlessly joining a group of delegates.
She practically tears the note open to read what it says.
You're in my bloc, Director.
She squints at the messy scrawl before crumpling the note up in her hand and stuffing it in her knapsack. We'll see, Fire Lord. We'll see.
Eight arguments, four hours, three unmoderated caucuses, two moderated caucuses, and one lunch recess (during which an intense staring competition took place, making other delegates very uncomfortable) later, Katara is indeed joining the Fire Lord's bloc. He's gathered a group of delegates from the colonies, the Southern Air Temple, the Swamp Water Tribe, and the Northern Water Tribe. As Katara walks over to him, surely feeling indignant but still holding her head high, he decides to make her life a little harder.
"So, Director. Has the URICEF finally come to their senses? Can I expect your full support for my flawless plan?" She scrunches up her nose and he can tell she's thinking up some way to maintain her dignity. He waits while the delegates behind him watch the interaction with barely veiled interest.
"Fire Lord," she says with a dramatic, mocking bow, "you had my support from the start. I was simply feeling out the opposition!" Zuko's good eye narrows as he looks over Katara's head at the aforementioned opposition.
Nearly every Earth Kingdom delegate has cloistered in the far side of the room to join a bloc led by the Freedom Fighter's delegate. Zuko isn't overly concerned - he knows his plan is superior - but he has to admit, Jet has a lot of support. He catches a spot of blue in the huddle and groans.
He turns to Yue. "Princess, why on earth is Advisor Hahn in the Freedom Fighter's bloc? I thought you two would stick together!"
Yue crosses her arms and looks at the ground. "We had a disagreement," she mutters.
"Leave it, Fire Lord. The Advisor is pretty firmly stuck with the Freedom Fighter, but I don't think we have to worry. Their plan is extremely...aggressive."
Zuko raises his eyebrow at Katara. "How so?" The waterbender doesn't answer and instead grabs the directive he's drafting. "Hey! I'm still writing that!"
She glances at him with a dry expression. "Good. Because it sucks."
"Yeah? Well, at least I'm not nuking anyone. I don't think you have any right to talk about aggressiveness." Katara blushes fiercely at the reminder of how two weekends ago, she had tried to nuke the Fire Nation in the middle of a crisis. As it turned out, the Director of the World Health Organization was not allowed to go around dropping bombs in the middle of a country. In her defense, the Fire Lord had made her quite mad by calling her camps useless. However, the chair of that meet, her own traitorous brother, had not found that to be a very good defense.
"Whatever, Fire Lord. The other bloc's plan is to simply wipe out every trace of the Equalizer's existence. Seek out Amon, strike him down, and then get rid of the Equalizer movement while they flounder around without a figurehead. Then just pretend the whole thing never even happened."
Zuko blinks as the rest of the delegates in his bloc balk. "That has got to be the worst plan I've ever heard. Ever."
The waterbender nods sagely. "I agree, it is." Zuko smiles at her then, a real smile, not a smug one. As much as arguing with her makes him feel alive, he loves the moments in which they put their minds together and work in perfect harmony. He feels constantly in awe of the way Katara carries herself, the way she's unfailingly kind and has such a big heart, and, while he'll never say it out loud, how stubborn she is. Katara speaks, bringing him back to the moment.
"So, where's the part about education reform? And where's my name as a co-author?" She grabs his pen to mark down her name as Zuko groans again.
"Will you give it up with the education reform already? We have bigger things to worry about! And what do you mean co-author, you literally just got here and you haven't written anything!" She rolls her eyes at him.
"Yeah, that's about to change." She turns the scroll over and starts scribbling down her plans to fight the indoctrination of both the Equalizers and the bender supremacists. "Look, children are the future. And if we want to avoid something like this from happening twenty years down the road, we need to protect our future! It just doesn't make sense to not make it a priority." Zuko looks behind him to see his entire bloc nodding along to Katara's argument. This girl has a way with words…
"Fine. Fine! I guess we can include it," he says, still trying to have some control over the situation, but she sees right through that and shoots him an unimpressed look.
When she takes a break from her writing to stretch her wrist, he steels himself and speaks up. "So, after you finish the education part, we can finalize the policy and get our delegates to co-sign, right?" She's about to nod at him, but she stops herself abruptly and he frowns. What's the matter?
Out of the corner of her eye, Katara can see Suki, clipboard in hand, watching them from a distance away. Oh boy, this is my time to shine. She stops midway through her nod, and shakes her head instead.
In her most patient voice, she says, "Of course not, Fire Lord. How could you possibly think we're done?" Zuko's frown deepens and okay, maybe she didn't sound that patient, but she tried! That has to count for something, right? "We have yet to include anything that will actually help the non-benders. We can all agree that they have been wronged, yes?" And like a pack of flying lemurs who have been perfectly trained, the other delegates in the bloc, bar Zuko, nod. And that's another point for 'working well in a team.' Go, Katara!
"Yes, they have been wronged, but I included the proposal for a set of laws that would protect them from hate crimes. Or," and he leans close to her here, "did you decide to become selectively illiterate when you got to that part?"
She smirks a little, because he's letting his frustration get the best of him and Suki's catching it all, but then she realizes. Suki's standing off to his left. He doesn't have peripheral vision on that side. She decides to swallow her pride for a second and leans even closer to him until their foreheads are only half an inch apart.
"Zuko," she whispers, "Suki's watching. On your left. Quick, do something to make up for your rudeness."
He whispers back a soft, "Oh," and that's when she notices his eyes are trained on her mouth. Her belly does this weird clenching thing and the back of her throat goes dry. Suddenly, Zuko pulls away and pats her on the back, nearly causing her to fall off her chair.
"Hey! I-"
"All in good fun, right, Director? I'm sure you're perfectly literate. Now, what are you thinking we should do for the non-benders?"
"Um- I. I think we should…" She has to shake her head to get herself back in the right mindset. "I think we should include more non-benders on the United Republic Council. In fact, we should have a defined ratio of bender delegates to non-bender delegates, and it can even be a percentage so it stays relative to the world's actual population. What do you think?"
Instead of Zuko, some ambassador from a Fire Nation colony pipes up. "I think that's a great idea, Director!" Zuko and Katara simultaneously turn identical suspicious looks on the young girl before looking at each other with frustration.
There's always that one person, Katara's eyes seem to say, who tries to show us up.
When are they going to learn, Zuko's eyes seem to reply, that we are the only ones who need to make decisions at these meets?
They shake their heads at the same time.
"So since the proposal written by myself and the URICEF Director leaves not a single thing to chance and still manages to solve the Equalizer issue without extreme violence, we urge you to vote in the affirmative for this resolution." Zuko sits down next to Katara - that's how pretty much every competition ends, with them seated side by side. He sends her an uncertain look that nonverbally asks if he did okay. The warm smile she returns tells him he did more than okay.
"Alright," Suki chirps, "thank you to both the parties for announcing your resolutions and amendments. Any motions?"
For the first time all day, there is no rush between Zuko and Katara to be the first one to motion something. It's as if they've both agreed Katara will take care of that, while Zuko handles any naysayers, but in reality, they haven't discussed any such roles. They just work in synchrony like that.
"Yes, Director?"
"I motion to close the general speaking list and begin the voting procedure." The motion is passed.
Except for the Freedom Fighters delegate and the Northern Water Tribe advisor, everyone votes to pass Zuko and Katara's resolution. When they high-five on their way to the room where the award ceremony will be held, their hands linger against each other for a far longer time than normal high-fives require.
Suki steps up to the podium to announce the winners as Zuko and Katara lean so far forward, they're hardly even sitting on their seats.
"To everyone who was in my room, discussing the Equalist movement, thank you so much for a wonderful meet. I hope you all had as much fun as I did!"
"No one had as much fun as the Fire Lord and Director!" Jet hollers from somewhere in the back of the auditorium, and the two mentioned delegates turn red and scoot away from each other.
Suki finds it in herself to give a tired grin at this and goes on. "Yes, well. Now for the awards. The Honorable Mention goes to our delegate from the Foggy Swamp Water Tribe, congratulations Due!" As Due walks up to collect his plaque, Katara absentmindedly grabs Zuko's arm in anticipation. Out of the corner of his eye, he looks down at her hand on his for a long moment, gulps, and then looks in the opposite direction. In his internal panic about Katara touching him (Katara'stouchingmewhatdoIdowhatdoIdo), he almost misses his name being called.
"The award for Outstanding Delegate goes to the Fire Lord, better known in real life as Zuko!" Katara's whoop of joy next to his ear is what makes him get up, and he wonders if she's excited for him or just for the fact that his loss means she definitely got Best Delegate.
"And last but most certainly not least, the Best Delegate award goes to the Director of URICEF, Katara! Come on up here and get your gavel!"
Katara, Zuko, and Due stand next to each other as their pictures are snapped, and as soon as that's over, Due runs off to find Tho, leaving the firebender and waterbender alone.
She grins up at him, bopping him lightly on the shoulder with her newly-won gavel.
"Look at you, it's barely been ten minutes since you got the gavel and you're already using it as a weapon."
"Am not! It's not even hurting you."
"Really? Mind if I borrow your gavel to try it out for a second then?" She giggles and clutches the prize to her chest.
"No! I won it and you'll never touch it!"
He smiles at her. "You did win it, fair and square. Good fight today, Katara."
"You too, Zuko. Maybe you'll win the next competition."
"Oh, I definitely will." But I don't want that to be the next time I see you. And that thought makes the decision for him, so he reaches into his pocket and makes sure the Post-It he scribbled on much earlier today is still there. "But I think we still have a few things left from today's discussion to hash out, don't you?"
She tilts her head in confusion. "Like what?" Oh. He didn't- he didn't figure out what he'd say if she asked that.
"Um, we'll figure it out." Before he can lose his nerve, he pulls out the Post-It and sticks it on top of Katara's plaque. He absolutely does not want to see her reaction so he walks toward the door, brushing her shoulder gently as he leaves. "Good night, Katara."
Katara blinks at the spot where Zuko had stood just a minute ago. What was that?
She finally looks down at the bright red Post-It and as she reads the message, a smile makes its way onto her face.
Director, (scribbled out)
Katara, (also scribbled out)
Ambassador,
Knew you would win. Celebratory dinner at the Jasmine Dragon on Tuesday at 7 PM?
Yours, (very badly scribbled out)
Sincerely,
The Fire Lord (striked through)
A fellow ambassador
OMAKE:
Katara waves over the messenger who is flitting around the room, delivering brightly-colored Post-its from one delegate to another.
"Longshot, hey. You mind delivering this to the Fire Lord?" Longshot shakes his head and grabs the note before walking over to Zuko and dropping it in front of him. She sees him gesture for Longshot to wait as he unfolds the blue Post-it. His eyes scan the message and he smirks.
There was nothing smirk-worthy in the message. She was just telling him that his idea was mediocre and they should probably discuss it during the next unmod!
He scribbles something down on his notepad before tearing the page off and handing it to Longshot. The messenger moves toward her and she outstretches her hand, anticipating some sort of snarky response.
So she is thoroughly embarrassed (and just a little disappointed) when Longshot moves to the desk behind Katara's and drops the message in front of Toph. Toph can't even read the message!
Katara whirls around to narrow her eyes at the Fire Lord, who has his face buried in his hands and is shaking with silent laughter.
"It's not that funny, Fire Lord!"
"Katara, it's not your damn turn to speak! Shut up!"
AN: oh my god this was so much fun to write, reliving my HS days of Model UN
i actually had to plunge into the depths of my inbox to find all my old MUN resources, but i think it was worth it.
i'd love to hear what you thought of this, so drop a line below or talk to me on tumblr (thebluesunflower44)
thanks for reading! happy zutara month! (check out atla's official Instagram page :D )