Disclaimer: The Avatar world and characters belong to Mike DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.
Thank you so much for the reviews, they have all been wonderful encouragement! My friend has very kindly edited the grammar in my previous chapters so I've updated them (I don't know if people following the story get a notification about that or not, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.) I hope you enjoy it & review!
In hindsight, telling Sokka the news in a confined space, hundreds of feet in the air, maybe hadn't been the best idea.
Sokka spluttered as he gesticulated wildly between Katara and Zuko, furiously searching to make sense of his little sister's announcement. His mouth opened and closed like a fish while he stared at Katara and Zuko.
"You married my little sister?" Sokka finally shouted at Zuko. "I take back what I said last night! YOU ARE NOT A PRETTY COOL GUY."
Toph shot her arm in front of Sokka as a precaution to keep him from throwing himself at Zuko. "Try not to do anything stupid, Snoozles. We don't need you acting rashly and someone accidentally falling off Appa."
Katara couldn't help but imagine scenarios where Sokka leapt across to attack Zuko; each one ended with Zuko being thrown overboard, or Zuko dodging and Sokka stupidly falling over himself.
Sokka looked back to Katara. "How long has this been going on for?!" His face suddenly twisted into an expression of horror. "Are you two in love?" He asked, appalled.
"No! Sokka! It's not like that at all!" Katara pleaded. "It was an accident."
"How do you accidentally marry someone?" Toph asked sceptically.
"Alcohol," was Zuko's response.
Everyone sat in silence, taking the news in. Toph was the first to recover.
"So are you Mr and Mrs Sparky or Mr and Mrs Sugar Queen?" She smirked.
Zuko pulled the marriage certificate, now more than a little crumpled, out of his shirt. "Technically, we're Mr and Mrs Sparky Sugar Queen."
"How would you like it if I married your sister?!" Sokka cried in outrage. Images of Azula running around with her blue fire whilst cackling evilly suddenly flashed through his head. "Never mind."
Katara glared over at Zuko. "What is wrong with you? You're not helping!" She hissed at him. "Wait, we put your name first?"
She snatched the paper out of his hands, looking down at it in a disgruntled manner.
No matter how hard she tried, in the cramped saddle, she couldn't escape Sokka's gaze. She looked up from the document, and her eyes met Sokka's confused and disappointed stare.
"It would help if someone could remember exactly what happened last night," Sokka eventually said.
Collectively, the group tried to piece the night together. They all remembered the start of the evening, discreetly sitting in a booth in the corner and chatting.
Zuko remembered Sokka dancing; the tavern had had a band playing music in the background, and Sokka had drunkenly swayed and bounced along to the songs. His dancing was described by Toph at one point as "reminiscent of a beached whale-shark flapping about on land". Sokka most definitely did not have the waterbending grace of his sister.
Sokka mentioned how he remembered Aang pulling Toph out to dance as well, earning him a punch on the arm from the younger girl.
"Ow!" Sokka whined, rubbing his arm where Toph whacked him before Katara cut in with her own memories of the night
She told the group that she remembered Sokka and Zuko buddying up. Sokka countered with his recollection of Katara then trying to get between them. Zuko didn't mention how he recalled Katara no longer focusing on Sokka after a while, and instead talking and laughing with him. Sokka also chimed in by saying that he and Katara had even managed to laugh with Zuko about his bad ideas during the time he spent chasing the group.
"Wait, wait! You had that ponytail too!" Katara had giggled at him, before Zuko drunkenly corrected her.
"It's called a Phoenix Plume."
"And you were super pale, Zuko. Freakishly pale," Sokka then added. It was the last piece of conversation everyone remembered, and after that there were very few specifics.
From their group discussion it seemed Zuko and Toph had handled their alcohol better as their memories of the night went the furthest. Toph could remember that, at one point, Zuko and Katara had returned to the group to announce that they were married. The group had celebrated to the news, and Toph recalled Sokka shouting something about finally having a brother in the family.
Sokka blushed at Toph's story, and Zuko grimaced; they were certainly not celebrating after hearing the news the second time round. But when pressed for more details, Toph shrugged and admitted that she couldn't remember where Zuko and Katara had disappeared off to when they separated from the group. She only knew that they came back with rings on.
Appa landed back at the Western Air Temple, where the rest of their friends had been waiting anxiously, the group's late arrival back causing them to worry. Toph and Aang filled the rest of the group in on their wild night and escape from Ash Island over lunch, while Sokka, Katara and Zuko remained quiet. As soon as the meal was over, Katara left the group, electing to spend the rest of the day doing laundry a faraway corner of the temple, wanting some time to herself.
Aang had been suspiciously quiet since the news had broken. He stared off into space for most of the day, eating his dinner with a frown on his face and occasionally glancing over at Katara.
Zuko approached him cautiously after dinner.
"Aang, we can't afford to lose any more time. I think we should go over some drills before bed." Most of the group had already headed off to bed due to their leftover exhaustion from the previous night and their rude awakening in the morning.
Aang nodded glumly. "Okay, Sifu Hotman."
However, their training didn't get very far. Zuko was demonstrating a technique when, suddenly, he felt a burning sensation across his left hand.
"Argh!" He cried in agony as he looked down to see his plastic ring melting around his finger like hot wax under a flame.
He hurried towards the fountain, thrusting his hand and melting ring into the cool water. Aang hovered over him, worry clear on his face, while Zuko sat there, gritting his teeth.
"I want you to do twenty hotsquats followed by form three, and then you're done for the day. I'll supervise from here," Zuko snapped at Aang.
"I'm gonna go get Katara first," Aang said as he began to jog towards the temple.
"Fine. But twenty hotsquats when you come back!" Zuko called after him. Aang had picked up his pace, running so quickly that he left a gust of wind in his wake.
Aang quickly returned with Katara to find that Zuko had managed to remove the melted ring from his finger. A red welt was beginning to blister where the ring had been branded into his skin.
Katara had followed Aang, not wanting to heal Zuko's hand and half-expecting there to be nothing there to heal really. However, from what she could see of the welt in the dim light, it looked bloody and painful. No matter how mad she was at Zuko, she wasn't the kind of person who was going to force someone to suffer because of her own personal grudge.
Aang set to work on his hotsquats while Katara pulled Zuko away from the fountain and towards the campfire so that she could examine the wound more closely. She sat down next to him, bringing a bucket of water with her. Gingerly, she held his palm in her hands while she turned it over so she could clearly see the mark.
She removed one of her hands so she could bend some water from the bucket into the air, It hovered above Zuko's hand while Katara met his gaze.
"I need you to understand something," Katara said, her voice quiet but firm. "It doesn't matter if we're married. I don't have to accept or trust you now because the only thing that matters is ending the war and achieving peace. I'm going to make sure that Aang is there to defeat the Fire Lord. I don't care if officially you're my husband, if you change your mind and change side again, I will end you before I let you get in the way again."
It was the first time since Ba Sing Se that she had talked to him whilst sober without a hint of hatred or bitterness in her voice. She spoke slowly but surely, and her expression almost conveyed pity as she watched his reaction.
Zuko understood what she was saying and nodded reluctantly, his expression neutral. She maintained eye contact with him and he tried not to notice how the light from the crackling fire somehow made the blue in her iris even more vivid than usual.
He suddenly remembered how she had looked at him the night before. Sokka had disappeared to get them more whisky, leaving them alone together. Someone had stumbled into the back of Zuko, making him trip forward slightly and causing him to accidentally invade Katara's space. Normally, Zuko would have spun around to yell at whoever had fallen on him, but he was entranced by the look on Katara's face. She had stared up at him with her big blue eyes, half-surprised and half-curious. Zuko had cast a glance at Katara's lips and she had tilted her face up towards him slightly. The two had leaned in, almost close enough to share a breath, when Sokka had returned with their drinks, not realising he was interrupting something even when they jumped apart. Katara had smiled across at Zuko afterwards, trying not snicker at his visibly disappointed reaction.
She was not smiling now. "As far as I'm concerned, Zuko we're not really married. I won't let this distract me."
She held her hands over Zuko's, the water beginning to glow as she bent her head in concentration and leaned in to heal the mark on his finger.
Zuko pulled his hand away, and Katara looked up at him in surprise as he stood up and took a step back.
"What are you doing? It's going to scar," Katara said, frowning.
"I understand that the war is more important than an accidental marriage," Zuko said sharply. "But I'm not going to change sides, and it's not just some distraction. Living in denial isn't going to solve anything, Katara," He stormed off, heading towards the eastern wing to clear his head. His uninjured hand curled into a fist by his side as he clenched the smouldered ring into his palm.
Zuko wished that Katara could understand that just because he was willing to accept that their marriage was real, it didn't mean that he was happy about it. As the prince of the Fire Nation, Zuko wasn't exactly allowed to just go around randomly marrying peasant girls from another nation.
It had been told to him from a young age that Zuko was expected to marry the kind of girl that was acceptable to be part of Azula's entourage. He was lucky that he wasn't already part of an arranged marriage, and, as such, not already engaged to anyone. But that didn't mean Katara would immediately be accepted as his wife when he returned.
The future Fire Lady typically had to be approved by the Fire Court, which almost always happened; but if Zuko put Katara forward for that title, he wasn't sure that they would accept a foreigner as part of the royal family. The public of Fire Nation might also reject Katara as their sovereign, if they would even still accept Zuko.
Their marriage could put his claim to the throne in jeopardy, and Zuko was afraid to admit that his rash decision could now mean that he had thrown his future as Fire Lord away. Zuko didn't want that to be true, especially not for a girl who would prefer it if he didn't even exist.
He also had to acknowledge that while had not been engaged, he hadn't been single while he was back at the Palace. Mai had been his sort of girlfriend and was the girl that he had intended on marrying one day. But that wouldn't be possible now. He had disgraced and betrayed Mai when he left home to join the Avatar's side. He had certainly never intended on getting involved with someone while he helped Aang, and the last thing he had expected from the upcoming conflict was to end up married.
But Zuko was married now. And he was bound by honour to acknowledge and abide by that marriage. Which meant, for the time being, he was stuck with Katara and would somehow have to make their futures work.
Katara walked back to her room, Zuko's words twisting through her thoughts. She sat down on her bed, slowly pulling the ring off of her finger. There was no need to wear it, especially since Zuko had practically disintegrated his. Even with her finger bare, she bitterly acknowledged that she was not free or released from her problems.
She heard a knock at the door, and looked up to see Sokka standing in her doorway. He walked into her room, shutting the door behind him, and moved to sit next to her on the bed.
"Listen, Katara," Sokka said, turning to look her in the eye, "I don't like what you did, and I wish you hadn't done it. But you're still my sister, and I still love you. Always will."
The distance that Katara had felt between them when she told him the news earlier on disintegrated. Katara pulled her brother into a tight hug, and Sokka wrapped his arms around his little sister, holding her closely while she cried against his shoulder.
