AN: I am genuinely so sorry that this is a short one :( on the bright side, I think I characterized everyone well here so that's...good? anyway, enjoy these five scenes of pure zk interaction! (italicization looks better on ao3)
Katara stepped into the tearoom, a scowl preemptively fixed on her face. She did not want to be here. She absolutely did not want to sit here, where the Fire Lord could easily slip toxins into her tea. How suspicious of him to call a meeting in the first place, when only a week ago someone had tried to kill her!
Out of habit, she sought out water in her vicinity and flexed her arms as she surveyed the room. Every wall was painted an earthy green, much to her surprise, and the aroma of lemongrass pervaded the area.
She spun around to face the entrance just as the host walked through it, carrying a teapot and looking shocked to see her.
"Ka- Master Katara," he said with a slight bow.
Barely repressing a roll of her eyes, she bent into the saikeirei. "Fire Lord Zuko."
"You're early." He moved around her, giving her a wide berth - so wide he was practically hugging the wall - and settled in his seat at the low wooden table.
"Yes. Don't be too disappointed." She took the seat across from him and scoffed at the look of confusion on his face. What, did he really think she would give him more time to poison her drink?
The two political leaders sat in uneasy silence for a few minutes, observing each other through narrowed eyes. There was a tangible weight in the room, pressing down on both of their shoulders. The knowledge that they would be wedded in just half a year - how does one maneuver such a playing field? What silver lining could be found in this deplorable situation?
He was the first to shatter the quiet. "Thank you for the service you are doing my nation, Master Katara." His voice was a murmur, a far cry from the authoritative manner in which he had spoken to her the last two times they had met.
As he reached forward to heat the teapot, she ignored his gratitude and focused on his hands. Large, calloused, steady - not the hands of someone who made others do his work for him. He poured the tea with the ease that only experience brought and Katara sat up straighter. Every second that passed filled her with more and more certainty that he had been behind the attack.
"Do you mind if I demonstrate a bit of my own bending?" She didn't wait for an answer before calling vapor to her fingertips and creating a bubble around the teacup. She twirled her fingers, moving the water around the teacup to check for any contaminants. Not finding any, she brought the cup to her lips and took a long gulp, maintaining eye contact with the puzzled monarch all the while.
"What was that?"
"I think the better question is what is this?" she retorted, spluttering as she set the tea down.
"Tea."
"No, it most certainly is not." The awful taste of whatever concoction she had just forced down would not leave her tongue, and her irritation at that grew with every moment. Meanwhile, the Fire Lord chugged his entire cup and slammed it on the table, startling Katara.
"It tasted fine," he snarled before standing up. "I am not obligated to make you tea-"
"Great, because I'd really rather you didn't."
"-nor do I owe it to you to make these constant efforts to...to bond!" he said, all but spitting the last word.
She stood up too, clenching her tunic in her hands. "I never asked you to. Believe me when I say the last thing I want is to have a connection with you. I despise you and all that you stand for. I am here as a representative of the Southern Water Tribe, to help the Fire Nation and its ruler improve their image in front of the rest of the world. That is all." She slashed the air in front of her for emphasis and he took a step backward.
She saw hurt quickly pass over his face before anger replaced it. "Fine," he gritted out. "I had hoped we could be friends, at the least, but fine."
The waterbender had to laugh. "Friends? Really? You are not a well-liked man, Fire Lord Zuko. You are not a good man. And I'd rather chop off my hand than become your friend."
The steam rising from her half-finished tea thickened.
"You know less than you think, Master Katara." Despite the way the room had perceptibly gotten warmer, his hostile tone chilled her bones.
Before she could even open her mouth and form a reply, he had swept out of the tearoom, leaving behind a small black spot at the place he had been standing.
"Hey, Lee!"
The Earth Kingdom boy crossed his arms and turned away from her to glare at the fountain.
"Is there a reason you're acting like a four-year-old?"
"Maybe we should stop meeting."
Two steps forward, forty steps back.
"And why's that? We had plenty of fun the last time we met."
"Maybe you did. To be frank, I thought you were annoying."
She had to slap a palm to her forehead. "Not even two weeks ago, you were the one who was all 'Oh Kya, we should be friends! Pretty please, will you be my friend? I'm so lonely, Kya!'"
"I do not speak like that!"
"Well, that was the general gist of what you were saying, so what changed?"
He took a deep breath before muttering, "You didn't show up last week."
Katara put a hand on his shoulder and pushed it so he had to look at her. "Look, I'm sorry. Something came up. I didn't mean to leave you hanging."
"What came up?"
She studied what she could see of his face and saw only sincere concern in his gaze - but she couldn't bring herself to trust him. Not completely, not yet.
"I can't really say, but just know that it was unavoidable, okay?" He gave a hesitant nod and she stuck out her hand. "Great. So, once again, friends?"
Lee's mouth slid into a crooked smile as he stared at her palm, as if her saying the word 'friends' had been some sort of joke.
"Alright. Friends," he replied, completing the handshake. The warmth of his fingers traveled up her arm before coating her entire skin in something that felt like security, and she was once again reminded of dragons as she looked at this man.
Only when he pulled his hand out of her grasp after a few long moments did she look away from his eyes, because something shockingly cold brushed against her skin. In one second, she was holding his wrist up to her eyes and gaping at the pendant hanging from it.
"What…" she trailed off, unable to believe her eyes. This whole time, he had been wearing it?
He tried to tug his hand away and her grip tightened. "Explain. Now."
"It's- it's your necklace."
"Yes, I can tell. That's not what I'm asking, Lee. Why is it on your arm?"
"Uh-"
"You knew how much it meant to me. You knew it was from my mother. I made you spend hours searching for it! How long have you been keeping this from me?"
"I didn't steal it if that's what you're thinking, and I wasn't trying to keep it from you. I've had it since the first time we met because in all the ruckus caused by those men who tried to attack you, it fell off your neck. I don't- you didn't notice, so I didn't think it was all that important."
She threw his wrist at his chest. "And what about when I told you it was the last piece of my mother I still had? Or how about when we spent half a day scouring the city for it? At neither of those points did it occur to you that I might, I don't know, care about it a little?"
"I was just trying to do something nice! You might never have seen it again if I hadn't picked it up that day! Then the ribbon frayed and fell off, so I had to find someone who would make a new one in the exact same shade. Which was not as easy as you'd think, because someone in the city used up a ton of blue thread on custom clothes! And I got the new ribbon last week but someone didn't show up, which meant I couldn't give her the necklace," he finished, slightly out of breath and entirely fired up.
She couldn't be bothered to close her mouth. He had been keeping it safe for all these days? And he had gone out of his way to find the perfect ribbon?
Katara dithered for a minute before she threw her arms around him. "Thank you so much." He didn't return the embrace, but she felt him relax into it nonetheless.
"Sure, Kya."
She pulled back to smile at him and his hands came up to help her wear the necklace. After he had closed the clasp at the nape of her neck, his eye widened and a strange noise escaped him.
"Are you okay?"
"I did not do that," he grunted, taking a tentative step away. "I did not help you wear that."
Her nose wrinkled. "Seriously, Lee, what's the matter?"
"Nothing, nothing."
She looked down at the necklace, then back at Lee's fidgeting hands, and when she pieced it together, she tried her best to smother a laugh.
"We're not betrothed now if that's what you're worried about."
His face turned a fierce red. "Right, yes, of course. Wait, really? But I thought-"
"If I were from the Northern Water Tribe, yes, that would be how it worked. But we do things a bit differently in the Southern Water Tribe." Her heart warmed a bit at his genuinely interested expression and she offered him the crook of her elbow. "Come on, I'll tell you about it as we walk."
He narrowed his eyes at her arm before putting out his own for her to take.
"I'm not holding your elbow," she sniffed.
"And what makes you think I'll hold yours?"
"Fine."
"Fine!"
An Earth Kingdom man and Water Tribe woman strolling around and shoving their elbows at each other like children was not the most curious thing Caldera City's people had seen, but it certainly made it onto the list.
Yet again, after Mai's lessons, Katara was seated across from the stoic Fire Lord, sipping at the tea she had made to avoid all and any issues.
He refused to make eye contact with her, and he hadn't opened his mouth even once since greeting her. He had seemed a bit on edge for the entire meeting, as if he couldn't wait for the moment he could sprint out of the room - even though he had been the one to schedule the stupid little tea party.
So, naturally, she decided it was the perfect time to rattle him a bit.
"Have you heard of bloodbending?"
She curled her lips inward to hide a smirk when she saw his hands twitch.
"Of what?" he rasped.
She took a noisy sip of her tea and did not elaborate.
After a downright hellish lesson with Mai, in which she had to study at least 300 different battle plans, Katara found that she could not concentrate on her city friend.
If they wanted someone who could memorize strategies and tactics, she grumbled to herself, maybe they should have brought the other Water Tribe candidate.
She had to swallow a snicker at the thought of Sokka being forced into a marriage with the Fire Lord, but it came out anyway as a peculiar giggle, immediately catching Lee's attention.
"What's so funny?"
She waved him off. "Nothing, nothing. Just thinking about my brother."
"Tell me about him," Lee said as they turned into a small bakery.
"Well, the first thing he would want you to know about him is that he loves food. Especially meat. Cannot go without it. The first thing I would want you to know about him is that he's the bravest person I've ever known. He doesn't back down from challenges, he's extremely intelligent and can outsmart any puzzle, and all the humor in our family went to him. But he's so brave, and he never fails to be there for me."
Lee had an unnameable look on his face as he pulled out a seat for her. "Are you brave?"
She looked up with surprise at his question.
"I suppose. I think I'm good at being brave for other people. If someone else needs my help or strength, I can give it to them. In fact, I have to give it to them. But sometimes... I'm not sure. I've seen so many brave acts done by the people I love, and I wonder if I'll ever have that kind of strength." He studied her intensely and she squirmed in her chair. "What?"
"I think you're very brave. You're brave for being here in the Fire Nation, and for leaving your family behind. Don't sell yourself short, Kya."
She blinked rapidly. If she were being honest, it was a little jarring to hear him say something so kind and earnest.
"Thanks, Lee. That's- that is really nice of you."
Much more quietly, he added, "I think you're pretty funny too."
The solemness with which he said that statement had her bursting into laughter. "You're funny as well. Sometimes," she managed to choke out before bending over to laugh some more.
She missed the tiny smile that had crawled onto his face.
Why did he even have to offer to have lunch with her if he was just going to sit there awkwardly the entire time?
For the past ten minutes, the Fire Lord had been staring at her necklace, meeting her eyes, and then quickly looking away to scowl at the food.
Exasperated, she lifted the bowl of curry to her lips and started to slurp it down. When she got the reaction she had been waiting for, she placed the bowl on the table, making sure to be as graceless as possible.
"I'm sorry, is there an issue, my Lord?" She was pretty certain she tasted bile in her mouth from having to use such a term to address him, but Mai had told her to start getting used to it - and what better way to do so than through mockery?
It was worth it for the hue his cheeks took on.
"I simply thought Lady Mai would have taught you how to eat properly by now."
She could all but see the taunts of 'Water Tribe peasant' dancing in his golden eyes and had to bite her tongue.
"Actually, I believe Lord Jet has been in charge of those lessons."
Despite her best efforts, she couldn't hold back a snigger when his eyes widened fearfully.
"Really? She made Jet teach you how to eat?"
'Teach her how to eat,' he said as if she were some toddler or imbecile.
"Perhaps." Mai would make her pay for this later, but at this moment, she was gleeful to see smoke rising from his fists.
Faintly, she wondered if she would lose herself in this war to maintain her identity. Would she, too, go insane as she attempted to push the Fire Lord over the edge?
The thought rendered her silent for the rest of the meeting.
AN: the fluffy moments in this chapter are really my apology to you all for everything that I am about to put our favorite characters through for the rest of the story. very little will be smooth-sailing from here on out - but that's what makes it fun, right?
I know a lot of you were anticipating the necklace scene, so hopefully it didn't disappoint!
as always, your comments/favorites/follows/reads are treasured. I love each and every single one of you, thank you SO MUCH for following along with this story 3
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