A/N: I just finished A:TLA within the last week. I feel cheated that Katara ends up with Aang so… he's a short story with a sightly different love triangle. Aang mentioned, but not central to the story. The rest of the Gaang and an old friend are all present.
Full disclosure, the situation in which I watched the majority of it has been hectic and time-restrictive, so I haven't paid the closest attention to all of the details, especially in books I and II. Story complete, uploaded in chapters all at once.
He reached up and picked a blossom from the nearby tree and tucked it behind her ear with a lock of hair. The wind blew and fragile petals fell from the branch he'd just touched, encircling them in the light pink. Katara could feel herself blushing. She'd never felt like this with Aang. She thought back to her brief romantic moments with the Avatar and found that she was glad it had been so short-lived.
It had been five years since the end of the war and Katara had spent the last year and six months as an ambassador from the Water tribes to the Fire Nation with its new Fire Lord. It had taken her a while to decide what she wanted to do with her life now that Aang didn't need training to tackle his destiny. They were still together when she'd first arrived. It had been Iroh's idea when he ran into the two of them in Ba Sing Se. There weren't a lot of people from the water tribes who trusted Zuko enough to have a residence within the Fire Nation, let alone its capital. After a few months not being by Aang's side day and night, Katara realized that her feelings for him weren't what they should be- realized that her sense of responsibility had been overshadowing the doubts. Her feelings weren't what they could be with someone else. She had ended it and was still healing from it, trying to repair a friendship.
Now, here she was, on what had become a weekly tradition for the two of them. They had a full council meeting, with representatives from several Earth Kingdom cities, some of the now-found Air nomads, Zuko's provincial advisors, a member of the Northern Water Tribe, and herself, each Wednesday morning. So, to unwind, each Wednesday afternoon, they took a walk together. It helped them both to calm down from the squabbling. It helped them both to unwind to be with each other.
She wasn't sure what they were exactly, but she could tell that Zuko liked her. The two often held hands and several almost-kisses. Recently, they had begun sharing some of their meals together in private, dancing together which always dissolved to laughter, spending time together in the evenings doing paperwork with casual touches in front of a fire. They had never had a discussion about what they were to each other, but she had started to fall for the Fire Lord, hard.
"You're beautiful." Zuko grasped her right hand and lifted it over her head, forcing her into a spin. She laughed as he wrapped his other arm around her, pulling her close.
"Oh, is that why you keep me on your council? Eye candy for when you get sick of looking at the old men from the Earth Kingdom?" Katara teased him, reaching up on her tip toes to kiss his cheek briefly.
"I keep you on the council because you're extremely clever and compassionate. Right when I feel like the only course of action is to set someone on fire, I look at you, with your scroll full of notes, and I realize that there has to be a more rational response." He kissed her forehead, "I ask you on these walks and to dinner because in addition to being smart, kind, and funny, you're also graceful and beautiful." His hands met at the base of her spine, not quite daring to go lower as hers lay gently on his shoulders.
"Where did this Zuko come from anyway?" Katara giggled. She continued after his questioning look, "I mean, you were never this smooth before and now you're giving me compliments all over the place and being all suave." She pulled back, entangling their fingers together.
Laughter echoed around the small enclosed garden space, "Well, would you be too disappointed in me if I told you that I got some help in the words to say?" He watched her walk away, toward the pond and lift tendrils of water around her as she twirled. It was a fantastic view.
"Well, let me guess, Iroh?" She laughed. When he turned red, she let the water fall back into the pond. "Oh, Zuko, I was only teasing. But I've seen your uncle be quite charming. There's no shame in asking him for help with wooing a lady." She kept her tone light and teasing as she finished the sentence.
"Oh, is that what I'm doing?" She rejoined him on the path as he flipped hair out of his eyes. "Here I thought we were just two friends out de-stressing after a council meeting."
That nearly brought her up short. He was always so confusing like this. He'd be overly flirtatious one minute and then would call them friends the next. Then the kissing was thrown in and everything just got more confusing. Was he teasing about the friendship remark? Was she even ready to try to pursue something with someone new? That was why she never pushed for an actual conversation. She kept her pace and forced out a laugh. "Whatever you decide to call it, my lord." She skipped ahead of him and winked over her shoulder before dragging a small blob of water from the pond and dropping it squarely on his head.
Dripping, he faked a scowl at her, "Why, Ambassador Katara, was that an act of war?" She laughed as she took off running, with him close on her heels.
An hour later, both sodden and with singed hems, they returned to the palace. Katara leaned against the door to her guest chambers as Zuko leaned toward her. "So, I'll see you at dinner? My study?"
"I'd like that." Katara bit her lip, trying to draw his attention to it. He bent his head like he was going to kiss her and abruptly stopped, lifting her hand to his lips instead.
"I'll see you in a few hours then." He dropped her hand and began to walk away. "Be well, Ambassador Katara." He backed down the hallway before turning around at the corner.
She sat in the portion of her rooms that she had transformed into a study and stretched her hands over her head. It was nearly time to go to meet Zuko for dinner, but she had time to read and respond to one more letter. She had just reached for a sealed scroll when a knock sounded at her door. She called for the person to enter.
"M'lady, you have a visitor at the gate. He is not on any entrance list and so your presence to confirm his identity is required." The fire guard stiffly told her the news and turned to walk away, causing Katara to quickly grab a cloak and stuff her feet into shoes to follow after him.
She wondered as they walked who it could be. Almost all of her family and friends were permitted into the palace grounds without her coming to see them. Had Zuko really taken Aang off of the list because of their break up? She couldn't see it, but at the same time, she wouldn't be outrageously surprised. As she followed the guard down the steps and across the path to the main gate, she mentally whittled down the list of who it could be.
Who it was, she never expected to see again.
"Jet?" Katara bypassed the guard and ran to the gate, calling for it to be opened as she went. "Jet!" she yelled as she got closer and could confirm that it was the same man she'd met in the forest all those years ago, the same one she was sure was dead because she hadn't been able to heal him when they last saw each other.
He slipped through the narrow opening in the bars of the gate and caught her as she barreled into him. The embrace lasted longer than Katara had really been expecting it to, but as she felt his heartbeat, she realized just how much guilt she had pent up over time, not having taken the time to heal him, to save his life.
"How are you here?" She finally asked, pulling back from the hug to touch just his hands.
"Well, I walked into the city after I got off the boat I paid to take me here and I came to the palace gates. I ran into Sokka and Suki a few weeks ago and they told me that you would likely be here. So, here I am." He had a piece of straw hanging from his mouth, just like she remembered. But he wasn't as scrawny as he had been. He'd filled out with muscle and carried his share of new scars.
Lightly hitting him on the chest, Katara scoffed, "You know that's not what I meant. I thought you were dead! How did you survive after nearly dying under Lake Laogai?"
Smirking and playfully rubbing his chest where she had hit him, he replied, " 'Bee and Longshot got me above ground and to a healer. I don't remember all of it. Then they went to go help in the war and I was unconscious for most of it, stuck in the lower ring of Ba Sing Se, in the healer's backroom, recovering. But I got better and I've been making my way around the world, making custom weapons for people and now I'm here." He paused and looked Katara up and down. She could feel her cheeks heating under his gaze. "Is there a place we can go that's more private to catch up in more detail?"
Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, Katara looked back up at the palace. At the place she was supposed to be going to any minute for dinner and paperwork with Zuko. "I…" she paused, wondering what to say to him, "I have a meeting soon, Jet. Can we meet up again tomorrow? I'll put you on my list of people to be admitted and then when you show up, you'll be escorted in."
Reaching forward to untuck the lock of hair Katara had just fixed, Jet twirled it around his finger as he spoke, "So official. Who would have thought you'd end up here? So, tomorrow, I'll pick you up for lunch and we can get reacquainted?" He stopped and looked up at the towering spires behind her, "I'll be very intrigued about how you went from thinking my treehouses were magnificent to being here." His smile. She forgot how much his smile had caused her stomach to flip as a young teenager. She was trying very hard to deny that it still did.
"That sounds great, I'll be ready." She turned to the guard to add a signature to the scroll of paper he was holding out for her to add Jet as a guest and turned to walk back up the pathway, she turned over her shoulder, "I'll see you tomorrow."