Keeping It Real
Author/Artist: MuffyTaj
Pairing: Zuko/Katara
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Theme: #11. Gardenia
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, or the series.
The scent of damp furs and seal blubber alerted Zuko to the fact that he was not alone. It was a subtle smell, but one he had had ample opportunity to grow familiar with. He swung around, springing at the closest bush and burning it to the ground.
A scream informed him that he had attacked Katara, the water peasant. He felt vaguely offended – he had the hazy thought that women should smell of roses and gardenia, not sweat and dead animals. It took him only a minute of intense combat with Katara to figure out why he was wrong.
Beautiful perfumes were for delicate, almost sickly pale girls who sat under umbrellas and talked endlessly about their clothing, their friends' clothing, and how the two were related. It was for weak little kisses offered under the hope of political leverage, and utterly without passion.
As Katara smashed a frozen fist into his stomach, in that moment radiating more emotion than any the pretty little dolls back home would show in a lifetime, he realised that he would forever associate the smell of real women with the stench of crude clothing and harsh conditions.
And for some reason that pleased him more than gardenias ever could.