This doesn't make any sense, Katara thought as she twisted water slowly around her outstretched hand. I've known him for a while now, but I've never felt this way. It's so different than before. It's something… else. And it's great, but it's not.
The water tribe girl was floating peacefully on her back in a small, relatively shallow river close to which "the gaang" -- as Sokka had recently come to call Aang, Toph, Katara, and himself -- had camped, outer clothes pulled comfortably away. It was around five o'clock in the afternoon of a perfectly clear and cloudless day (walking instead of riding Appa had exhausted and forced them to stop early).
It's not -- Katara denied her mental self. It can't be… what's the word I'm looking for… It's impossible.
She had left the not-so-intriguing conversation that her friends and brother had been having around an hour before to swim in the river around a quarter mile from the campsite. It felt good to be by herself sometimes, to get away temporarily from any troubles, but personal time to think was now causing her problems. For example:
I'm not attracted to Zuko, the girl mentally repeated to herself, like a chant. I'm not. I'm not. I can't be. We're too dissimilar. We clash. We're worlds apart. Katara tried to push away the thorny thoughts from her mind with other ones. It didn't work.
A fish swam by, tickling her bare feet, but not a sound escaped her lips. She climbed out of the water onto the riverbank and sat down, letting her feet remain dangling in the river. Yet one thought kept creeping back, annoyingly, into her head.
Maybe.
She flipped a loose strand of hair back over her shoulder.
I feel incomplete, Katara thought. Incomplete. I'm missing something.
At that very moment a hand touched her shoulder, making her almost jump. She knew it couldn't be Aang. The hand was too muscular. Nor could it be Sokka; the grip was too firm. And it surely wasn't Toph; it just plain wasn't something she would do.
Katara could only think of only one person. That one person being --
Oh, crud.
"Zuko!" she whispered in terror. After all, this was the Prince of the Fire Nation. And, well, chaser of "The Gaang" for a rather long while by this time. Either one was not good.
In other words, the one person Katara would least like to be alone with in the woods. Especially at this extremely inconvenient time.
Perfect.
Except maybe Azula, Zuko's vicious sister. Or possibly Ozai. But that was unlikely. And not quite the same (the latter not quite sane).
I've been thinking about nothing but him for the past half hour, Katara scolded herself inwardly once she realized this. I can't just attack him.
The hand was jerked away, almost as if Zuko could read her thoughts (for, indeed, this was him).
Omigosh, she thought worriedly. How long has he been watching me?
After a short and awkward pause, Katara's instincts got the better of her. With one swift motion she leapt to her feet and spun to face him, ready to defend herself. Yet much to her surprise, he had backed off only three or four feet, and his arms were not in a fighting stance, only casually hanging there.
Hardly thinking about it, Katara attempted to water whip him, but her attack was easily dodged.
"Why are you here?" she asked quietly. "I'm not the one you want, am I?"
"Relax." Zuko said soothingly (not really, but he tried) as Katara halfheartedly waterbended.
Yeah, relax. she thought. Like that was going to happen.
"Your first question has two answers. One, I got bored, so I wandered around in the woods and then I saw you. Two, I just needed to talk to you, and now is as good a time as any to do so. And no, you're not the one I want." At least, not in that sense, he silently added to himself. "And I think I already answered your unspoken question."
Crud, Katara mentally banged her head repeatedly on a nonexistent rock, He had been watching me.
"Relax," he continued as he took a cautious step forward. "I said I only wanted to talk to you."
"Then talk," she said harshly, still in a bending stance.
Zuko bit his lip and turned his head to one side, as if thinking about how to word what he wanted to say, though he had been rehearsing this in his head almost constantly for the past few days. All he had to do has keep cool and do exactly what he planned to do.
"It's kind of a long story…" he started. So much for sticking to his plan.
"Don't beat around the bush," Katara insisted.
Zuko sighed. "Fine. I don't care about chasing you and your friends and capturing the Avatar--" he started to recite.
"His name is Aang. And Sokka's my brother," Katara interrupted.
Zuko raised his eyebrows, then went on, "…capturing Aang anymore."
She was shocked. But, honestly, could anyone blame her?
"What good would it do me, anyway?" Zuko said after giving Katara a raised eyebrow and a few moments to recover.
"I don't know. What good would it do you?"
"I told you it would be a long story. Sit down. Please," he added when Katara shifted her weight to the other foot and crossed her arms across her chest
She sat down by the water, close to the location she had been in before Zuko had made himself known. He sat down next to her, except cross-legged, on the riverbank.
"Tell me what you're talking about or leave me alone," Katara said, trying to sound like she was annoyed rather than afraid and nervous.
Zuko shot a weird look at her. Apparently she wasn't as good acting as she gave herself credit for.
It was then that Katara realized she was still wearing her swan-white underclothing. Maybe that was why he had been giving her weird looks…. She reddened, but pretended nothing was different about her and prayed that he had nor would notice.
"My story starts a few years ago," Zuko started after a short silence elapsed. "I was a little younger than you are now."
"You sound like my gran-gran," Katara muttered.
"What?"
"Nothing. You were saying?"
"Where was I? Oh, yeah. I wanted to go into my father's war room."
"War room?"
"They make the battle plans there. Now quit interrupting. Do you want to hear this or not?"
Katara was silent.
"Thank you. The guards wouldn't let me in (as I wasn't old enough), so Uncle Iroh --you know him-- convinced them to let me pass. One of the generals came up with a shocking war strategy. He wanted to send an entire division of new recruits to 'attack' a powerful earth army. Obviously, they would've been defeated and killed easily. Then another one of our armies would attack while the earth nation was busy with the other division, and we'd, that is to say, the fire nation, could capture the city. I spoke up, because I thought that the strategy was cruel (not to sound heroic)."
"And?"
"What did I tell you?"
"I'll shut up now."
"I told them that their idea was crazy, and that they couldn't sacrifice so many men like that. The general was stunned at my outburst, and told me I had dishonored myself, and that I had to fight in an agni kai for it to be restored. Actually, that's not exactly what he said, but you get the picture. What is it now?" he complained, for Katara had an expression of bewilderment on her face.
"Agni kai?"
"Yes, agni kai."
"Which is?"
"A fire duel. And one more thing."
"Yeah?"
"Shut up!"
Katara didn't respond, so Zuko continued.
"And then I (stupidly) said I wasn't afraid. Let's just say I should have been, and that I wasn't a very accomplished bender at the time."
"But you are now," Katara murmured admiringly but unintelligibly, so he hardly stopped speaking.
"When the time for the agni kai came, I was prepared to duel the general against whom I spoke. But when I turned around to fight -- you start an agni kai facing the direction opposite of your opponent -- it wasn't the general. My own father was standing at the far end of the arena."
"That's horrible! Terrible! Unspeakable!" Katara interjected. Zuko didn't tell her to be quiet. He either didn't notice, didn't care, or completely agreed. Katara assumed it was the last of the three.
"I didn't fight him. Looking back, I probably should have. And by refusing to fight, even if he was my own father, I basically forfeited. I lost. But that's not the worst thing, at least in my point of view. I was given this scar by my father. But really, he's not my father anymore. I haven't thought of him as that in years."
"That's so sad…" mumbled Katara, who had slid towards Zuko gradually as he spoke, so now their shoulders were pressed together.
"I only learned one thing from the experience. To keep my mouth shut. And I learned it in one of the most painful ways."
"But how does this relate to your chasing Aang?"
"Since I lost the agni kai, the only way for my honor to be restored now is to take the avatar prisoner and take him to my fath -- Fire Lord Ozai. But now, he's sent my sister Azula to find and kill my uncle and me, so I doubt he'd let us return at all. I know this sounds crazy, but I still want to go back. Maybe I'm in search of the childhood I never had, but still…" With the last two sentences, a tear rolled down the side of Zuko's face, try as he might to blink it back. He turned so Katara wouldn't see, but he was too late. She saw.
Slightly embarrassed, Zuko started to get up, but then stopped. Katara had reached out to wipe away the tear. After she did so, her hand lingered. In an almost trancelike state, she ran her finger along the outline of the scar that marred his features.
Suddenly she snapped out of it, and jerked her hand back.
"Omigosh, I am so sorry," she apologized extraordinarily quickly. "I don't know what came over me, I'm sorry--" She pulled her hands to her chest and they started to shake, so afraid Katara was that she ad offended Zuko. And she did not want him to hate her.
"It's okay, Katara," he said, steadying her hands by taking hold of her wrists. "You don't need to apologize. You didn't do anything wrong."
Then Zuko did the one thing that Katara had played over and over in her mind, wishing it would happen. He dropped her wrists and leaned in and kissed her.
Taken aback, Katara pulled away.
"It's too soon…" she stated to say, but she let Zuko kiss her again.
"I'm younger than you." Katara pulled away again, yet allowed him to pull her back.
"My brother would kill you," she said, but he ignored the comment and embraced her.
"Is that all of your excuses?" he teased her.
Katara smiled and surrendered.
This is perfect, she thought. Let's just stay here for hours.
A few long and wonderful moments later, the two were forced to cease. Sokka had walked over, picking up some kindling and firewood when he'd stumbled upon the two. Now his mandible was practically on the ground.
"Katara! What in the world are you doing!" he practically yelled.
Katara could feel her face grow red. She still had her arms around Zuko's neck, so she quickly pulled them back. Within a few seconds, she recovered herself. Remembering something, she smiled mischievously and coughed. The cough sounded mysteriously like Ty Lee. Sokka bit his lip, rather embarrassed.
"Fine," he said after a brief pause. "I -- I didn't see anything." He turned around and walked quickly away. What sounded like a slap to the forehead echoed through the silent wood. Katara and Zuko looked at each other, smiled, and kissed one final time. Then Zuko stood up and disappeared into the woods.
Katara stood up and nodded, just letting her head bob up and down, up and down.
"Yes."
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The ending didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. Sokka wasn't Sokka enough. pokes self repeatedly After a heck of a lot of editing, I finally decided it was good enough, even though it still stinks. And for the most part, Katara just seems really ditzy. What's new?
Feel free to correct grammar, spelling, et cetera.
Patsee