Author's Note: This idea struck me recently and so I decided to give it a try! In a slightly AU world where only Sokka left with Aang on his bending adventure, Katara never became friends with him, and instead of saving the world, she's engaged to Zuko. Considering the setting, rating is for safety, and the story is an eventual Kataang with only some Zutara trickled in.

Revised as of: 11/2020


Zuko sighed as he rubbed his temples and carefully closed the door behind him. He glanced to his right and to his left, taking note that the hallway he had just entered was rather quiet, though he didn't mind as the stillness had somewhat of a calming effect at the pain he felt creeping over his brows.

It was getting late, the hall only being lit by the strategically placed torches along the wall, and the other council members had left nearly an hour ago after the end of their meeting with the Fire Lord, one of many that day much to his exhaustion. He was no stranger to the long, and usually grueling meetings that were hosted in the palace council room since being the heir to the throne pretty much subjects one to all the dealings of the Fire Nation, whether they seem relevant or not. But he had a fairly early start that morning, and the long day only served as a persistent reminder to the warm bed that sat waiting for him in his room.

With the prospect of sweet sleep back to the forefront of his mind, he turned and began walking down the hallway towards the eastern wing of the palace where the sleeping quarters were, his thoughts slowly wandering as the echo of his steady footsteps filled the air.

Despite being the heir to such a powerful nation, there was a deep seeded feeling of disrepute that he couldn't shake off. He was the only son born to Ozai and Ursa so naturally it was a given that he would be next in line for the throne, but yet this privileged position didn't make his childhood any easier as it was the source of this unsettling feeling, the constant reminder to this fact being his younger sister, Azula.

She was the perfect child from birth, and he wasn't, and it was something he resented about her. From a young age she proved more capable than him, from mastering the next fire bending technique to scoring higher on their private tutoring exams, and while his mother tried her best to convince him otherwise, he never could get over the inferiority complex his sister instilled into him.

It didn't help that she possessed the one thing he craved, and that was something no amount of comforting from his mother could soothe. She held their father's affection, and the man never spared the opportunity to remind Zuko of it.

As a result of this disconnect, he did everything he could to impress his father and hoped to one day see the same love that the Fire Lord held for his sister be cast towards him for a change. Many of his attempts only led to misery though, as he often came under rebuke for them, and the worst of the lot leaving a permanent reminder on his face of the reality that maybe he was just born for a life of strife after all.

Looking back at his childhood now, he only wishes he could tell his younger self of the things that had yet to come, that would leave a scar worse than the red singe around his left eye. From the only person who ever truly loved him vanishing in the night, to hearing his father say it would've been better had he been the one to disappear so that his sister could be instituted as the next ruler of the nation. It was only made worse by the threat almost coming to fruition until Azula mentally cracked under the power that would be bestowed to her, and had to be taken away to an insane asylum by the avatar himself after a very fiery ordeal, though Zuko knew the idea still lingered in his father's mind from the attention he placed into the facility and correcting his daughter's mental degradation despite it being under the guise of saving honor to the family.

The thought caused him to stop walking and his gaze casted downward. "What even is honor?" He cynically muttered to himself. The word left a bad taste in his mouth.

Reeling his mind back to the present, he looked to his side and observed the large door to his room and hesitated, his hand hovering over the elaborate gold handle that would open the only thing stopping him from passing out on the bed that lay in wait for him on the other side. The pain over his brow burned its presence into his skull and the fire bender turned the handle without another pause.

"AHHHHHH—GET OUT!"

All he saw was a flash of blue before he found himself staring at his door once more, one that had just been slammed with a ferocity in his face while the one responsible shrieked in horror at his presence. The sensation returned to his brow with a vengeance and he scowled at the pain as his hand went back to the handle once more and turned it again.

He wasn't in the mood for this.

This time there was no shriek and no door slamming back into his face, much to his relief, as he entered into his room and not so quietly closed it behind him, vaguely noticing the room was void of any life it seemed. "It's pretty rude to slam the door in someone's face you know!" He snapped in annoyance, though only silence met him, and he shook it off.

He debated momentarily whether or not to even change out of his clothes as he eyed the big bed in front of him, its crimson silky sheets calling his name like a temptress, and at another intense flush of pain in his temple, he closed the gap between him and what he had longed for that day and let his body go limp onto the bed, the sweet relief almost bringing a pleased moan from him.

Almost.

Instead, a feminine voice cut his pleasure short as it carried through the air from his bathroom, and his brows instinctively scrunched together. "How many times do I have to tell you to knock first?! Honestly, it's like you don't understand the concept of privacy!"

She was noticeably upset. Zuko didn't have to see her face nor even hear her for that matter to know since this was a conversation, or rather argument, they've shared for the last month now since their engagement had been announced. Though walking in on her like that wasn't exactly commonplace for him, he didn't really see why it mattered considering they slept in the same room, heck the same bed for that matter, and they were about to be married soon.

He closed his eyes and decided to ignore her, pointedly deciding that the migraine deserved more attention at the moment than her. Most times it worked for him to take this approach.

He knew she was ill-tempered, becoming more convinced as the days drew on that she had an even shorter fuse than he did, and while normally he would have simply taken an extra walk around the palace to give her whatever space she needed, he was determined to pass out on his own bed rather than be found in the morning slumped up against one of the palace walls. He could feel his nerves knotting over of what the consequences would be if someone actually did find him like that, the heir to the Fire Lord stuck sleeping out on the stone floor of his palace because the woman that he was engaged to kicked him out of his own room. He could hear the whispers already circulating at it; as if he didn't need another reason for people to suspect his inadequacy for the throne. Let alone what his father would say if he caught wind that his only son couldn't even handle a water tribe peasant.

The sound of her shuffling into the room caught his attention, and he took a deep breath to prepare himself for whatever barrage she would throw at him.

"Nice try, but ignoring me isn't going to work this time Zuko, or have you forgotten already that I sleep in this room too?"

Realizing the prospect of an early night might be a lost cause at her tone, he sat up on the edge of the bed, a grunt escaping his lips as the action caused a seer of pain into his temple, and he quickly placed a hand up to the area to massage it.

"I think you are the one who seems to have forgotten that this was my room before you came along," He spoke coldly, keeping his eyes closed so that the dim light from the fire lanterns placed around the room didn't agitate his migraine even more.

She snorted rather derisively, and he could feel his eye twitch. "I would rather have kept it that way personally, but my opinion hasn't been part of any of this so, I guess that's where we are now, isn't it?" He slipped his hand further over his face as he slowly pulled it down to his chin, debating the idea of actually just sleeping outside for a split second, and peered over at her with a cock of his head, not at all surprised to see her staring him down from the bottom of the bed with her arms crossed and a heated look on her face.

Not that this arrangement had necessarily been his idea, or even what he thought his engagement would be like when he finally did marry, and while he wasn't too keen on sharing his room with her either, he sometimes found himself not hating it too much on the few occasions he saw her in only the soft glow the lanterns provided. Even he couldn't deny how beautiful she was from her perfectly tanned skin to her prismatic crystal blue eyes that looked back at him, and the dimmed setting never was shy at hugging her curves he would admit unabashedly, but yet, as the pain in his brow reminded him, now was not the time.

Figuring since he was still awake at this point, he got off the bed and began his trek to the bathroom to change. "Neither has mine, but you don't see me complaining about it. Besides, I don't see why it matters," He flippantly threw over his shoulder as he passed her. "It's just a room and it's just a bed. It's not like we've come close to having sex or anything—" He paused at the doorway of the bathroom and looked back at her with raised eyebrows "—unless you want to."

Of course, he was only joking as the only thing he wanted to sleep with at that moment was with the wily temptress already waiting to envelope him under her covers, but he found over the last few weeks that it was sometimes more fun to tease his fiancé rather than engage in an angry banter with her. Her reaction was just what he anticipated as a blush grazed her cheeks, a rosy tint that he noticed only made her look more desirable, and an amused smirk found its way onto his mouth, giving him some temporary distraction to the pain that was ever building in his head.

He turned into the room and lost sight of her, though he could still imagine what type of face she was making as he heard her voice echo into the bathroom: "Please, like you said, we may have to share the same bed, but that doesn't mean we have to touch each other.."

'Yet'

She didn't have to say it, but he knew it was there.

He sighed as he took off his robe and opted for just pants that night, feeling a little too warm now and enjoying the cool air on his bare chest. It was a little frustrating to say the least for him. Of all the nations and eligible women, he was paired with one who had strict premarital rules when it came to engaged couples, and that meant no sex before they were officially married… among other things.

The only reason that she was even sharing the room with him was because it was an insistence by his father to hers that it was part of the Fire Nation's premarital customs for the engaged couple to share the same sleeping quarters, and that it could be negatively misinterpreted if it were known that they were in separate rooms. Especially for the royal family, it was a crucial step that had to be taken so there was no ambiguity as to the father when the children started to arrive; a sort of safeguard for their lineage that would keep any conspirators at bay should questions arise when it was time to pass the throne along to the next heir.

Hakoda hadn't been too thrilled about it, but he agreed, nonetheless, on the condition that nothing was to happen until after the ceremony. If the meeting hadn't been so serious between the four of them then the older man's reservations would've caused Zuko to laugh when he presented them considering his prior knowledge of Katara, knowledge that did not fail to prove him right that even if that were not their tribal customs, she still would bite his head off should he even brush his leg against her during the night. It wasn't exactly like they were friends, but they definitely knew each other enough to know it was going to be a bumpy ride.

After slipping out of his former clothes, Zuko entered back into the bedroom and noticed Katara still standing in the same spot with a rather sullen look on her face as she gripped one arm with the opposite hand, her anger having tempered off in his absence. He let out another sigh and rubbed the side of his face somewhat awkwardly, feeling a little bad now knowing that his comment probably struck a sensitive nerve in her.

"Look," He started cautiously, his voice catching her attention as she glanced up at him and he caught the light blush that tinted her cheeks. "I know this isn't exactly what either of us expected—"

Almost immediately her eyes rolled. "Oh really? Because ever since I was a girl I always dreamed of being forced into an arranged marriage." Her interjection was caustically as it held the pain he remembered seeing in her the day she moved in, but he glanced away as he narrowed his eyes, overlooking it.

"—but it's not like there's much that can be done," He finished levelly, though his annoyance was piqued a little. It's not like he was trying to be insensitive to her feelings, he had done nothing but try to consider her ever since the engagement was revealed to both of them, but with only two more months until his coronation, it wasn't like they had much time to become well acquainted with one another, much less like each other.

He glanced back at her when she didn't respond and took her glazed look as a sign that maybe she wasn't going to. That's about as far as they got when it came to their situation these days, they'd argue until it was brought up once again the reality that the choice wasn't theirs, and it had already been made for them.

It had been about five months now since Hakoda showed up at the Fire Nation's palace, a visit that revealed the chief's apprehension with the Earth Kingdom and the possibility of war between them increasing as the weeks passed. The Southern Water Tribe had a salvaged relationship with its sister tribe in the North Pole, but he feared even with their collective power that it wouldn't be enough to protect them should King Kuei advance his military fleet on the mostly icy terrain they inhabited, the snowy dunes only hiding the massive forms of earth that lay beneath their feet, proving an equitable battlefield.

The Fire Lord wasn't known for being the most generous leader of the nations, and the chief showed an inkling of desperation by even petitioning him knowing he was at the disadvantage, but even to Zuko's surprise, his father graciously offered protection to the water tribe should the time arise that it was needed. Not so surprisingly, his father wanted a guarantee in return that the tribes wouldn't turn on him, and that is where Katara came into play.

At the thought of her, Zuko turned his gaze back over and studied her face. She hadn't moved and her stare was planted to the side, away from him, with an expression that was hard to read. The silence that surrounded them after he spoke moments ago was starting to feel a little too heavy for his liking, and he felt the urge to say something to her.

Without thinking, he let his musing conclusion slip his tongue.

"It's just business," He said, his eyes widening slightly after realizing the words that escaped him, but knowing it was too late. Her eyes darted back to him with an intensity that almost made him flinch, and he watched her otherwise unreadable expression turn dark.

"Maybe for you it is," She scathed, her eyes narrowing in on him. "But it's not for me."

With that she pivoted around and was gone, slamming the bedroom door behind her as she vanished into the hallway. He stared after her for a moment before slapping a hand to his forehead.

"Why did I just say that? That was so stupid," He growled regretfully, pulling his hand down over his face. Even though it was the truth, he knew she wouldn't take it well, and that sensible part of his brain seemed to have fled into the back of his thoughts as the charged words came out.

With a deep breath, he debated going after her. He knew she'd probably just chew him out like Mai had done, the memory of his last conversation with the noblewoman and how it ended coming to mind, and it was about the time of night that the servants were heading back to their own sleeping quarters as their duties finished shortly before midnight.

The reoccurring pain he had forgotten about in his brow forced his contemplation to a standstill, and he ultimately decided against following her. A scowl slowly crept over his face as his thoughts refused to let go of Mai, and he inched back onto his bed. "At least Mai wasn't this hard to handle," He grumbled to himself.

With that he extinguished the fire from the lanterns in the room, and a darkness quickly overtook him as he finally laid down and put his eyes to rest. Any concern over the girl who had just left his room was gone after his mind traced the memories of his first love and lulled him into a bittersweet sleep.


"Does this whole thing really not bother him?!" Katara muttered to herself, fuming as she aimlessly walked down the hall. Her eyes narrowed at nothing in particular. "What the heck is wrong with that stupid head of his, I swear it's like he is happy with this sometimes—" She stopped with her hands clenched into fists "—and that comment about sleeping with him? ARGH! I could've bended some water right there and smacked him into oblivion just for that!"

To say that she was unhappy at the thought of marrying the prince of the Fire Nation was an understatement. It caused a searing knot in her stomach at the idea and it took everything in her not to sprint out any open door she came across if it meant escaping the life that her father had signed away for her.

Her and Zuko never had the best relationship—not that she had a good relationship with anyone of the Fire Nation— but he just happened to know how to work her buttons to the point of frustration. It was hard to look past his background as well, given that she'd lost her mother to a Southern Raiders fleet. It was a day that burned its mark in her memory, and ever since, she's never trusted nor cared for anyone who identified with them. She was grateful for her father and brother though as they pulled her through the tough years that followed it, something no six-year-old should have had to endure, but even that changed when her fifteenth birthday rolled around.

One night they received word that one of their ships had gone down in the southern seas, and the crew was stranded. Her father and brother left immediately to go look for them, but instead of an exhausted crew, they returned with the avatar. It was strange because no one knew where the tip came from about the ship, and considering the lateness in which it arrived, no one really questioned it at the time as the need to rescue them was pertinent to their survival, but they had been out for a week before stumbling across the airbender in an iceberg and never found any sign of wreckage.

Katara realized just days into their rescue mission how hard it was to be apart from the two men in her life after losing her mother, and it was almost like a sick joke from fate to her when her brother, Sokka, announced his decision to journey with the avatar as the young bender sought out masters of water, fire, and earth to learn bending from. She couldn't help the resentment she felt towards him even if he was the avatar, and the constant chores of the women in their village never afforded her much time to really get to know him, let alone talk to him. Even if she had, it probably wouldn't have changed her feelings much as the only thing that could have remedied it was if she went with them, but her father quickly shut that dream down.

It wasn't her destiny. That's what her Gran-Gran told her many times as if knowing that would ease the pain of her brother leaving.

It didn't.

He managed a few visits home, much to her relief, but they never seemed to last long, and time was always against them as the stories he told could have kept him going for weeks, not that she would have minded it. His last visit that year came just short of her sixteenth birthday, and it pained her to say goodbye to him so soon because if there was a time she wished he would've been there to comfort her, it was after she left her father's tent under that gibbous moon.

Katara instinctively reached for her neck and clutched the precious pendant that hung from her mother's necklace, the coolness of the medal quickly expelling once the warmth of her hand enveloped it, and she took a deep breath as the memory of the previous year flooded her thoughts.

Just a week after coming of age, she found out she was engaged to a man from the Northern Water Tribe, and another week later, she was at the North Pole and sleeping in a foreign room. Arranged marriages were a custom for the water tribes, her grandmother and her mother were both given in marriage to men chosen for them and Katara knew she would be no different so, the news of her engagement came as no surprise to her. Rather, it served to instill a bitterness inside of her towards whatever destiny her grandmother insisted was hers.

Her thoughts scattered as the sound of giggling caught her attention, and she looked ahead to see two female servants, presumably around her age by their youthful faces, walking towards her. Realizing that they were eyeing her and that she was just standing in the middle of the hallway with a murderous look on her face, she straightened up and tried to shake it off before walking past them.

"Is that her?"

"I wonder what she is doing out here. If it were me, I'd never leave Prince Zuko's room."

"Right? She is so lucky!"

She rolled her eyes, hearing the whispers they exchanged between them as they failed miserably at keeping their words hushed.

"Doesn't anybody know how to mind their own business around here?" She muttered to herself after they were gone. The palace was crawling with young servants like them and it annoyed her every time she caught wind of their conversations because they were all the same, and they were all about her. Whether the girls were jealous of her engagement to the prince or envious of it, it made her skin crawl and she had to bite her lower lip to keep from freezing their mouths over.

For all she cared, they could have him.

Her first meetings with Zuko were cordial enough when Sokka brought him with on his visits home, as he revealed that the fire bender was willing to teach the avatar firebending and had joined their triage, but things didn't stay pleasant between them. One of the perks to living at the North Pole was that it held a master waterbender and so the avatar ended up there shortly after her arrival to train with him, giving her some much needed brother-sister hang outs. But with them also came Zuko, who Katara learned quickly, had a temper nearly as bad as her own as sparks began flying between them. And not the good kind.

After everything that had happened since she'd seen them, she was no longer in an accepting mood of the fire nation prince and wasn't afraid to let him know. Much was the reason why she nearly blew a cap when her father not only ended her engagement months later, but then re-engaged her to the very man she couldn't stand.

At the thought she stopped and looked ahead, taking notice of one of the many torches that lined the hallway. A feeling of mockery tangled itself in her chest as she watched the flame dance whimsically upon its stick, and the soft glow it emitted only being enough to light the space around her, but teasing her with a warmth it couldn't provide.

She hated fire. It was something that only served to burn and destroy what was near it and it showed no favor to anyone.

With a growl, she grabbed it out of its iron holster and threw it out one of the window openings next to her with as much strength as she could muster, watching as it sailed through the small courtyard area. The smoke trail it painted across the night sky was satisfying, but... Her eyes widened, and she cursed under her breath when it landed on a small tree that covered a bench in the middle of the quaint spot and the leaves immediately erupted into a fiery blaze.

Quickly bending the water from the fountain in front of it, she moved it over the tree and released it, sufficiently soaking the tree and taming the fire, and then, just as quickly, moved out of line of the window. A couple of urgent murmurs echoed from the courtyard floor, and then, it was silent. With a relieved breath, she exhaled once she was convinced the guards had dispelled, and carefully peered out the window to confirm it before settling back against the sill with an exasperated sigh.

A soft breeze cooled her hot skin as it glided over her, and helped to simmer the anger somewhat as she stared out into the night sky. It was dark and she couldn't see many stars thanks to the smog that seemed to be covering more and more of the air in the last week, apparently the result of the Fire Lord's newest project according to Zuko, but curiously the moon was in plain view as it hung high in the darkness.

"Maybe if you hadn't become the moon, Yue, I wouldn't be here now," She sighed ruefully. Yue was the only other daughter born to nobility within the two sister tribes and would have been the one to take her spot presumably had things been different, but an instance with the avatar after his training led to her ascension with the moon and that left Katara as the only option when the tribes collaborated their alliance with the Fire Nation, as if fate hadn't already taken enough enjoyment from her life.

She stayed at the window for a few more minutes as the silence worked to ease her emotions to a more resolved state before half-heartedly pulling herself away and walking back to the room she stormed out of. To her relief the only light that flooded into it was from the two large windows that paralleled the bed, giving her enough of a glow to not ram right into the bedpost but not enough that she could really notice where she was, and she paused once she could make out Zuko's still silhouette under the covers.

The image of his shirtless appearance from earlier flashed in her mind and she fought the slight heat that threatened to creep up her neck at the memory. With a deep breath, she pulled her robe tightly across her body, and as quietly and lightly as she could, she slipped into the spot next to him, keeping her back to him as she settled onto her side with a heavy-lidded gaze faced forward. Her legs slowly moved in tighter towards her chest and she could feel the call of sleep coming as she closed her eyes, silently wishing that maybe tomorrow wouldn't come.


Coming up next... The Avatar