Puppet

He found her… annoying.

For the first time in Zuko's life, his uncle was not doting on him. For the first time in three years, he was not the one commanding all of the attention or just commanding, period. And the worst part of it all was that she didn't even notice – she didn't use it to her advantage, didn't acknowledge it, didn't manipulate, didn't do anything.

"Zuko..," Katara waited until he looked at her, "Will you please help me?"

"No! And it's Prince Zuko," he practically shouted, and she was left with four packs at her feet, wondering what she said now. And he was no longer a Prince, really - Katara refused to pay homage to a dead title.

"Now, Prince Zuko, be polite," Uncle Iroh, as Katara had also taken to calling him, softly scolded Zuko.

"Yeah, and while you're at it, why don't you try to actually do something," Sokka yelled from across the camp, where he was dousing a fire with water.

"I'll help, Katara," Aang popped up cheerily beside her, and she smiled and thanked him.

But when Aang reached for the pack nearest him, a pale hand grabbed it, and bending slightly to the other side, Zuko lifted another pack.

His eyes were narrowed in anger (the gold so foreign to her) and Katara coughed on the smoke seeping from his closed lips. (Three pairs of eyes turned at the harsh sound, all holding disapproval for a certain Prince.) Her own blue eyes were satisfied, triumphant.

He's like a puppet, Katara thought, only she didn't have to pull the strings.

"Thank you," Katara said, with faux sweetness, as she and Aang lifted the last two packs on to Appa.

Katara: 13, Zuko: 0


A/N: Katara knows exactly what she's doing and someone out there has to take Zuko off his high Komodo Rhino and make him walk with other mortals. Ah, and you gotta love peer pressure!

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Traveling Tales From the Bison's Back by Storybender