ZW 2011 Day 1: Mask

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Calloused

In their time in the crystal catacombs, Zuko likes to think he and Katara got to know each other, just a little bit. Katara likes to pretend the lost boy he was then was nothing more than an actor's mask, shattered the moment Azula approached him.

"That's something we have in common," he says, his raspy voice echoing loudly through the crystals. She wipes the tears from her face and meets his eyes.

They have a long time to talk; it's not as though they're going anywhere and it doesn't seem likely anyone's going to rescue them. "I wonder if Aang is learning anything new about the Avatar State," Katara wonders, long after they've run out of energy to talk about dead mothers and absent fathers.

Zuko raises his head. "Azula didn't capture him too?"

"No," Katara says. "He's at the Eastern Air Temple with a guru."

Zuko looks at her blankly. "The Avatar has a guru?"

"His name is Aang," she huffs.

He shifts uncomfortably. "I didn't know."

Katara sends him a sour look. "I guess you were too busy trying to capture us to pick up on names."

Glowering, Zuko crosses his arms and leans against the wall of the cave. "I had to restore my honor. It wasn't personal."

"Oh, and that makes it all better."

He sighs deeply. "Will you-" he pauses, looking at his feet as though they have the words he's looking for. "What's your name?"

A smile cracks across her face. "Katara. Nice to meet you."

"The Avatar thought we could have been friends," he says, after a beat.

"Aang."

"Aang. Aang thought we could be friends."

Katara eyes him skeptically. If Sokka were here he'd say something sarcastic, some shot about how many deep conversations Aang and Zuko must have had that one time Zuko actually managed to capture him. "When did he tell you that?"

Zuko ducks his head slightly and his hair covers his eyes. "It's a long story."

Katara steps closer to him and sits on the ground. "We're not going anywhere, Zuko."

He exhales noisily and slides down the wall to sit on the ground with her. "Do you remember Pouhai?"

She frowns. "Frozen frogs."

Zuko looks at her quizzically. "The Av-Aang was really determined to get them back to you guys."

Katara scrunches her face. "He made us suck on them."

He snorts. "Nice."

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His peripheral vision is suboptimal with the mask on, and it makes sneaking into Pouhai Stronghold much harder than it has any right to be. He's relying on sound almost entirely with his face pressed up against the bottom of a supply wagon, and he waits, coiled and ready, as the guards at the gate inspect the inside of the wagon. One stops at the side as the other walks away, and Zuko swings himself up inside as the man grunts with the effort of bending to look underneath the wagon.

The wood creaks as the wheels begin to turn, and it muffles the sound of Zuko shifting his weight to crouch among the boxes as the wagon passes through the gate. Once inside the fortress, it's surprisingly easy to find the Avatar. Every guard on duty is buzzing about which section of the fortress he's guarding and whether or not his patrol takes him past the Fire Nation's Greatest Threat. Zuko slips out of the wagon, stealing along the walls and slipping through the shadows in the hallways. Guards increase in numbers as he closes in on the Avatar, but they've grown sloppy with arrogance and a calm routine. He dispatches them quickly.

Freeing the Avatar is even easier than finding him, though getting out proves to be the most difficult part of the entire plan (Zuko suddenly wishes he had thought that far ahead. It hadn't occurred to him when he left his ship that he would need to get past the guards with a flighty child wearing bright orange). They make it out just the same, and for reasons Zuko never does figure out, the Avatar doesn't leave him to be captured by Zhao, and when he wakes up the boy is in a tree and Zuko is on the ground with a substantial headache.

"He was Fire Nation, like you," the boy says, in a tone that suggests he's talking to himself more than he's talking to Zuko. "If we knew each other back then, do you think we could have been friends too?"

Zuko looks at him incredulously. What kind of enemy sits around in trees asking to be friends, anyway? The Avatar looks at him with hope in his childishly large, gray eyes. Feeling a prick of something (and wanting very much for it to go away), Zuko slams a fireball in the Avatar's direction, but the boy flits through the treetops unscathed.

"Why did you rescue him," Katara asks, her voice soft.

Zuko glances at her from the corner of his good eye. "I couldn't let Zhao take him, and I couldn't fight Zhao."

The softness in her voice takes on a steel edge, and for a moment her voice sounds just a little like Azula's. "Why, was he too strong for you?" Zuko frowns, but doesn't respond. He's done taking bait; he won't take it from her and he won't take it from Azula (spirits forbid he ever sees his sister again). Katara's face contorts into a pained, spiteful grin, and she laughs bitterly. "You have to take all the glory for yourself, don't you?"

He hangs his head. "I just wanted to go home." It comes out weak, and suddenly he's ashamed of himself. He's losing all the dignity he had left, and this Water Tribe peasant is laughing at him.

Except that she stops, and looks at him curiously. "How would capturing Aang get you home? You're the prince."

"The banished prince," he mutters.

Katara frowns. "Why were you banished?"

Zuko glares at her. "Don't you have anything better to do than pry into my life story?"

She purses her lips. "Not unless you know a secret passage out of this crystal prison."

Zuko huffs. "I just was, okay. I was scarred and banished and the only way I could go home was by bringing the Avatar to my father."

"How did you get your scar?"

"Quit asking so many questions!"

They sit in silence for a while. Katara fiddles with the end of her braid and Zuko sits perfectly, stiffly still. "The Blue Spirit isn't the only one who wears a mask," she whispers, finally.

His face hardens more, if possible, but he looks her in the eye. "You don't know me."

"I can't know you if you don't tell me who you are."

He opens his mouth to respond when the wall of the cave explodes.

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"He betrayed us in Ba Sing Se," Katara spits. "He can't be trusted."

Sokka lifts one finger. "When someone shows you who he is-"

"Believe him," Aang finishes, dourly. "But I need a firebending teacher. And it's not like another one is just going to fall into my lap."

"You never know," Sokka shrugs. "We got one."

Toph stomps one foot. "You guys are stupid. Let's just get him to train Aang. He's sincere."

"He's not who he says he is!" Katara exclaims.

Sokka lifts one eyebrow. "What do you mean?" He's a prince, firebender, theoretically capable of teaching Aang."

"That's not what I mean," she huffs. "He has masks. He was Mister Vulnerable in Ba Sing Se, and then he turned around and betrayed us. And when he was still playing loyal Fire Nation Prince, he busted Aang out of Pouhai! He betrays everyone, even his own people."

Sokka rubs his chin. "Is that true, Aang?"

Aang hangs his head. I didn't want to tell you guys, but he got me away from Zhao."

"And so you just told Katara?" Sokka squawks.

"No!" Aang protests. "How did you find out?"

"He told me," Katara grumbles. "Like he was trying to get me to think we were on the same side."

"Hold it there, Sugarqueen. Even you know that's not exactly true," Toph rolls her pale eyes.

In the end, Team Avatar descends into bickering but allows Zuko to join (despite him burning Toph's feet, although she doesn't seem particularly upset about it once Katara has healed them and Zuko has fallen over himself apologizing). But that doesn't stop Katara from marching into his room, late at night, once every one has gone to bed, and glaring ice daggers at him.

"I don't know who you are," she begins, and he looks at her calmly, impassively. "But I know you're selfish and you're probably doing this for some reason I haven't figured out yet. So if you take one step out, give me one reason to think whatever you're up to is going to hurt Aang, you won't have to worry about your destiny anymore."

He nods, but says nothing, and she storms out of his room as quickly as she'd stormed in. Loyalty and Zuko, Katara decides, are mutually exclusive.

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By the time they return from not killing Yon Rha, Katara thinks she might have been wrong, but not wrong enough to apologize and certainly not wrong enough to forgive him, but she admits to herself that it might be time to at least acknowledge that he hasn't screwed up yet. When she finds him in his mother's room, staring at her portrait, her voice is as soft as it was in Ba Sing Se, though her back is ramrod straight and she can't quite look at him.

"Thank you," she whispers.

"For what?" He looks up at her, wide-eyed.

"For not turning on us yet."

He closes his eyes and bows his head. "I won't."

For the first time, she smiles at him. "And for helping me find him."

Zuko still doesn't look at her. "It was the least I could do."

She walks up to him and places a bowl of rice and curried meat on his nightstand. "Normal salt."

He looks at her, finally. "Thank you, Katara."

His eyes are a beautiful gold, she notices, just like his mother's, and the slight upward tilt of his mouth is genuine. She wonders, suddenly, if the selfish, disloyal liar was the mask and if this boy, barely older than Sokka, who takes them on field trips and stares at his mother's picture and smiles at her when she brings him dinner, is what was underneath.

Maybe.

She shakes the thoughts from her head and stalks out of his bedroom.

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Zuko notices she stalks with a little less disdain today.

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A/N: Sometimes I read things where Zuko just opens up with very little prodding, and that always drives me crazy. So I didn't do that. This was also way more epic in my head than I feel it is once typed out, but y'all let me know what you think. Thanks, as always, to jacpin2002 for keeping me motivated. I really appreciate the time you take to write reviews here and on AO3 :).