Ripples In The Ice
Author/Artist:
MuffyTaj
Pairing: Zuko/Katara
Fandom: Avatar: The Last
Airbender
Theme: #2. News; Letter
Disclaimer: I do not own the
characters, or the series.
"Dear mother," Katara wrote, her finger carving letters into the smooth water, "How are you? We've got a new family member, he's the Avatar. His name is Aang, and he's 112 years old, but he's really only 12. We've also made a new enemy, his name is Zuko and he's a prince of the fire nation. His father sent him to capture Aang. He attacked our home, and threatened Gran-Gran. Gran-Gran's fine – Aang stopped Zuko. For a moment though it was pretty scary. I thought he was a general, his face was so scarred and his voice was so harsh. But he's actually closer to my age. His father must have a lot of faith in him to send him to find the Avatar.
His father was the one who ordered the attack on our home two years ago. If I kill Zuko, do you think his father will know what it feels like?" Tears dripped down Katara's nose and splashed into the water. The water gave her tribe life, and it was to water they returned in death. "Will he know how we feel, when he hears that his son is never coming home? Will he cry? Oh, I miss you mum. I love you." That was how she always ended her letters, ever since she had started writing them so many years ago. Scrawled out in the frost, painted as ever-widening ripples in the ocean, it didn't matter where she wrote them, as long as they were on water. Surely, surely her mother was a part of the water, and so one day her letters would reach her, somehow.
She leant forward and gently kissed the surface of the water. For one second she thought the water warmed beneath her touch. Slowly she stood up, dusting herself off and wiping her tears away.
Yes, the fire lord would learn what loss felt like, even if she had to teach it to him herself.