ZW 2015 Day 5: Voyage

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A Snippet of Snipes

A successful rebellion drives Zuko and Katara out of the country. Their voyage to the Earth Kingdom is uneventful.

"What if we don't?"

Katara's head snaps up from peering at the the wooden box she's been using as a desk.

"Don't what?" Her blue eyes are wide and alarmed.

"Don't go back. If they hate us so much, why don't we give them what they want?"

Katara pushes herself up from the floor and wraps Zuko in a hug. "Don't say that. The Fire Nation needs you. It needs us."

"Why?"

She huffs, momentarily stumped, but she quickly recovers. "Because you're their Fire Lord. Who else is going to keep the nobles from fighting and starting a civil war?"

"The leaders of the coup."

"Zuko! They started a civil war!"

"Not really," Zuko moans. "Nobody fought back."

"We are. We're raising an army and we're fighting back."

"Who's going to join our army, Katara? Earth Kingdom mercenaries?"

That stops her. They both know that if they had been able to muster Fire Nation support, they would have done it when the rebels marched on the city. Instead, their guards had turned coat, their noblemen's forces stayed in their fields and factories. There had been no one but a handful of personal friends who had snuck them out of the palace, to a trade ship bound for the former colonies.

"We have friends in the colonies," she manages.

Zuko shakes his head. "Not enough."

"How did this happen?" She demands, shooting to her feet. "When did we lose them? What happened to the people cheering at your coronation?"

"Back the komodo rhino who's winning."

"We can take Azula ourselves."

"What if we don't?"

"You already asked me that, Zuko. I'm not ready to give up on our people."

He smiles, as he always does when she calls them "our people." She's beautiful, the red of her clothes a sharp contrast to her blue eyes, hair loose around her face. Reaching for her, Zuko pulls his wife into his chest and rests his chin on the top of her head. "I love you."

She squirms in his arms. "That's not going to get you out of this conversation."

"And the Fire Nation loves Azula."

"No, the Fire Nation loves you."

Zuko rolls his eyes. "Okay, then they fear Azula a lot more than they love me. Just like everyone has since she was born."

"Except Mai."

Wincing, Zuko pushes her back a few steps. "Who is, strangely, helping Azula with her campaign. I wonder why," he grumbles, dryly.

"She broke up with you, Zuko."

"Yeah, because I was too busy for her. I should have treated her better."

Katara steps closer to him and places both hands on the sides of his head. "Everyone has to make their own choices. You can't know this is your fault."

"Most of my problems are my fault," Zuko complains.

She pecks his lips briefly, then lets him go and returns to her makeshift desk. "Stop missing the tea shop you hated when you had to work there and start writing some letters. The people won't tolerate Azula for long. She'll have banished half of the population by the time we make landfall."

Sighing heavily, Zuko sinks down next to his own wooden crate. "I'm going to throw you overboard and move to Ba Sing Se."

"Uncle would disapprove of your lack of care for a pretty young lady."

He can hear Uncle saying that too, and it's at once endearing and infuriating that her imitations are better than his.

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A/N: If I've learned anything from getting married, it's that sometimes we need the mundane to keep ourselves sane. I think that despite the gravity of being ousted from his own government, and despite how morose he'd probably be about it, Zuko would take some comfort in Katara's speeches about hope and perseverance and whatnot. That's the constant in his world, even if the rest of it is falling apart. Besides, I've been writing a lot of Zuko being awkward and not nearly enough of him being a tinge dramatic-emo.