"Scars are just another kind of memory."
― M.L. Stedman
"Couldn't sleep?"
"Not really... Why are you out here?"
Katara gave him a half-smile as she pointed up to the star riddled sky. "It's a full moon tonight so it kind of makes it hard for me to sleep"
"Oh.. right." Having been lost in thought, he hadn't even noticed, but even then the underlying explanation of the energy that coursed through her body, much like the sensation that stirs him awake when the sun comes up, was mainly missed in a blind passover. It was for that inherent reason she found him alone on the beach with a pensive look.
"Do you mind if I join you?" She asked, waiting for the nod of his head before taking up residence beside him in the sand. It was cool to the touch as the loose grains shifted beneath her weight and she impulsively sunk her hands into it, pulling them out just to watch the sand escape off her upturned palm like a waterfall.
The silence that enveloped them for a few minutes was rather comfortable, which perked his curiosity and caused his thoughts to scatter as he glanced over at her. "Are you not talking for a reason?"
She met his eye with a raised brow. "Am I supposed to say something?"
"Well, no. You just seem to always..." He awkwardly trailed off as the right words to answer that failed him. Running his fingers through his somewhat tousled hair for a moment, he thought wisely to drop it. "Never mind"
She gave him a sideways glance before drawing her knees to her chest and letting out a sigh. "Actually, you looked like you were thinking about something so I didn't want to bother you." She paused briefly to gauge his response—a low hum of recognition—and kept her eyes fixed to the hypnotic rhythm of the water as it beckoned a little closer to her feet with every beat out until it made a hasty retreat with every beat back in. "The water is good for that, I think; you know, clearing the mind." She shrugged one shoulder. "It's always relaxed me whenever I have a lot going on"
He faintly snorted. "That's not really surprising coming from a waterbender"
"No, I guess not," She conceded airily, the edges of her lips curling up, "but it seems to be doing a work on your usually stiff self so it must hold some truth." He gave her a look which only amused her further, spurring her on to ask, "A copper piece for your thoughts?"
"A copper piece? I think it'll take more than that to get a peek inside the Fire Lord's thoughts, don't you think?" He leaned back, giving her subtle but cheeky smirk.
She rolled her eyes light-heartedly. "It's just an expression Zuko, and you haven't even been crowned yet... I swear, you and Aang are both full of hot air sometimes"
His smirk widened, and he averted his gaze forward. "I was just thinking about this past year and how everything has changed so much..." He said, deciding to drop the pretense and appease her even if the curiosity she held struck him as odd. He wouldn't question it though; she'd proven her forgiveness for him in their budding friendship and all things considered, he had no right to question her motives. "I never would have thought the week before my coronation I'd be relaxing at my beach house with the avatar and his friends; much less consider you guys my friends now"
"Well, it kinda threw us for a loop too finding out the guy who'd been tracking you down, and tried to have you assassinated, was actually going to suddenly become good and help save the day," She responded with a nudge to his shoulder, and he let out a deep chuckle.
"Yeah, I wouldn't believe that even if I did live it," He said lightly, the mention of his past doings pulling his focus back to what lead him out to the beach so late at night, "but that's something I realized after thinking back to that first day, when I spotted the beam of light in the southern seas... it was never something that happened suddenly, you know?" A sigh escaped his lips before they pulled down into a frown. "It was one of the longest periods in my life where I was so confused which path to take, and now, looking back and piecing everything together, I really was the only thing standing in the way of what my destiny was...
"And my uncle, well, he..." His jaw set a bit tighter and a deep breath made his face contort slightly. The salty air suddenly burned as it invaded his nostrils. "He could see the steps I was taking towards what was right, and he encouraged me the best he knew how while leaving the choices at my discretion, and yet, I was still too blinded by my own selfish pursuits to see it. It's funny how all the things I cursed for not going my way were actually what kept me on the right path the whole time"
A half smile found it's way to her lips. "Isn't that the great thing about being here now, and being able to look back on it all? The war changed a lot and we've all grown because of it, but sometimes it's easy to forget just how far we've come if we never take the time to reflect on where we've been"
"That sounds like something he would say," He said, throwing her a mildly amused look though it only lasted a second. "It all just makes me wonder what would've happened if I'd of just listened to him all along"
She nodded her head somewhat thoughtfully. "Well, you would've saved us a lot of trouble probably," She lightly countered, her smile widening as she paused to look out on the gentle lapping of the ocean waves. "But that's the neat thing about memories; they're much more than just a way we remember good or bad moments in our lives... they're kind of like the currents under the water. When a current is strong, it forges a path in the sediment underneath it and ends up leaving a trail, kind of like what a memory is to our mind. As we move on from that initial moment, our thoughts and feelings tend to fall into those grooves from time to time and it's like we are experiencing it again for the first time. But when the current is weak, nothing is left to follow it's path and so those are like the memories we forget easily"
Listening to her analogy made him crack a smile, and he couldn't stop the laugh that escaped his lips. "You think my life is like the ocean?" He asked with his eyebrow raised in disbelief before shaking his head, "How much time have you been spending with my uncle?"
She let out a sigh that sounded exasperated but it lacked any heat behind it, the corners of her mouth still twitching into a smile. Truthfully she couldn't get enough of Iroh's wise words. "What I'm saying is; our past affects our future more than we think it does sometimes, but that doesn't mean it determines it." Looking over to him and seeing his suddenly serious face, her eyes narrowed slightly as her expression sobered somewhat as well. "We haven't exactly been on the same team for very long, but I can see how much you've changed. Yes, you made the wrong choices a few times and yeah it would've been nice if you could've made the switch a lot sooner than you had, but... sometimes it takes going through rougher waters to find ourselves somewhere new."
"Is it weird to say that I still feel like I'm in those rough waters?" He didn't look at her to know the questioning look she was giving him, a sudden weight on his chest as he elaborated anyways with, "In some ways I really don't feel much different than that kid chasing after some notion of honor... I'm about to be crowned the Fire Lord in less than a week for heaven's sake, but yet, part of me still feels like some banished prince!"
Her brows furrowed in disbelief. "Zuko, you're not. I don't think what you chased after existed, but what I do believe is that you've redeemed yourself more than you think you have. You went from hunting down the world's last hope of peace to helping Aang restore it, and if it wasn't for you teaching him how to redirect lightning, he would be dead now thanks to your father. You not only saved his life, but you saved mine as well. I was terrible to you even if my concerns were legitimate, but you still risked your own life for mine when the time came; that speaks volumes Zuko." She paused, a thought coming to mind. "Kind of like your uncle said― you found yourself an honor that's worth its weight in gold, an unquestionable honor... and I don't know; I agree with him"
He wanted to smile hearing those words coming from her, they sent an intoxicating warmth through his chest that he wanted more of, but the mention of honor sent a chill down his spine instead and his frown deepened. "He may have said that, but I doubt it.. even if I had it at some point then I'm sure it's gone now; I may as well have chucked it into the water of the crystal catacombs when I betrayed him and you.. You got out of there so you never saw the look on his face, but I can't get it out of my mind. I'd give anything to redo that moment, to make the right decision then because if I had then maybe—"
A gentle hand on his shoulder stopped his negative digression just as his voice began to pick up with his words, a guilt that had been festering inside of him for too long finally seeing the light.
"Then maybe what?" When he turned to look at her, only empathetic crystal eyes met him. Her lips were pulled down in a small frown, but her voice was soft as it carried weightlessly through the air. "He wouldn't of ended up in prison? I know how you feel, trust me I've been down that road of 'what if's too many times to count and it never brings peace; it's only good for making you feel hollow and cold. You can't change the past, no one can, no matter how desperately we want to, but what matters is that you did choose the right path in the end and your uncle has forgiven you for these things that you're still beating yourself up over so.. why are you sitting out here still thinking about it?"
The reminder of his decision in that cave system didn't elicit the best feelings inside of her given what had happened to Aang because of it and so she purposefully left him out of the equation, watching instead as he took her words in solemnly, but shook his head a moment later, causing her brows to scrunch slightly together again.
"When I went to see my uncle at the encampment before we fought Azula, he was asleep when I went into his tent. I was so nervous he was going to be mad at me and throw me out, and honestly, I knew he had every right to do it... but then he woke up. I tried to get my apology out before he lashed out at me, but he didn't. He hugged me. Even after everything I did, after everything I said to him, he accepted me without even wanting an apology." Splaying his hands in front of him in frustration, he looked over at her and asked, "Why would he do that?"
It was rhetorical at best so Katara didn't say anything in the brief silence before his resigned breath, his gaze dropping as he turned back to the ocean waves, "I misspoke to my father one time and he banished me and scarred me for life. My uncle stayed by my side for two years without having to, he took my short tempered outbursts, my scathing words, my ruthless actions, and my constant ridicule and stubborn headedness for two years, and then for me to just betray him like I did? And for what? To see me on my knees, unannounced and practically groveling at his feet for his forgiveness only to pick me up and embrace me... to tell me he'd never been mad, only sad that I'd lost my way... he shouldn't have given me his forgiveness; he's a foolish old man"
His last sentiment was barely above a whisper, but the quietness of the night allowed her to hear every pained syllable and her eyelids dropped into a knowing gaze as realization dawned on her. "This isn't really about your uncle though is it?" She softly probed after letting his words hang in the air for a moment, knowing the bite in his tone a bit better than she'd like to. "You can accept his forgiveness, but what you can't do is forgive yourself."
He didn't readily say anything towards what he knew wasn't a question, but the heavy breath he pushed through his nose was enough to confirm it for her. "I feel guilty and angry," He quietly confessed, "My father told me when I was little that, 'The weak will always fall prey to the strong because no matter what they do, as long as a seed of doubt remains in their hearts, a crack in their confidence, they'll never have the power to become anything more.' Do you know why he said that to me?"
Her chocolatey waves that once resided behind her shoulders now crept over them as she slowly shook her head.
"He told me that after I tried to save a crab when I was eight, when I was eight, and it wasn't until after we had gotten home did I know that his words were about me. It was my compassion he found so disturbing. Being so young I thought he must've been right and I took his words to heart after that, vowing to become stronger so he didn't look down on me as if I were that weak little crab. It only spurred me on the more times my conscious was louder than the thirst for war I'd tried to acquire from my father or sister, but it didn't work. I managed to fool myself through it all and publicly show it when I begged for mercy in our Agni Kai"
He glanced at her long enough to catch the flicker across her suddenly deep blue eyes, and it made his heart twist in his chest, the tautness in her face telling him exactly what memory caused it. "Compassion isn't weakness though"
"Try telling that to a sadistic tyrant," was his unapologetic utterance.
Her brows scrunched together. "I know your father seems like a different story, but it is true. If I had faced my mother's killer sooner than I did, knowing the abilities I do know, I would've killed him; I probably would've killed him with my bare hands even if I hadn't had the pleasure of meeting Hama yet, but that's not the point. The point is, it would've been easy to do it, to end his life like he ended hers, but when the opportunity came, I couldn't. As much as I wanted to, I could hear my mother's voice like it was a whisper in my ear, telling me over and over; 'don't taint your memory of me with his blood. You're stronger than this because you have the choice to do what's right, and ending his life because of something I did out of love for you won't make you feel better.'"
Seeing the emotion the encounter brought to the surface made him instinctively reach out to her, brow creased with worry, "Katara, you don't have to―" but his attempt to relieve her of reliving that moment was quickly thwarted by the water bender when she took his hand and set it down in the cool sand between them, letting their hands linger together for a moment as she took a deep breath before she pulled her hand back atop her knees.
"I don't mean to say any of this to discount how you are feeling right now," She said, exhaling with a shaky breath, "I just wanted to say that I understand how you feel because I went through a similar experience with my father. He left shortly after the raiders did with the other men of our village to fight in the war. I was the only one aside from him who saw what that man had done in our tent and that picture is scarred into my memory now; seeing the blood, her lifeless body and her eyes staring at nothing... I know nothing could prepare someone to see any of that, but I was so young when it happened. And then to have my only other parent leave me when my sanity felt like it would shatter at any moment? The only way I could process it and keep myself sane was to turn the pain into anger. I was angry that he left knowing that we'd just lost our mother and could easily lose him too, and even after we'd met up again, I was furious.
"Furious that I couldn't be mad at him anymore, that I'd already forgiven him for everything, and mad at myself for being who I am. If I hadn't been a water bender then my mother could still be here today. I felt so guilty for so long, why couldn't he have taken me instead? Why couldn't it have been someone else? Why... why did she have to give her life so that I could live mine?" A stinging in her eye stopped her digression and she briskly wiped away the tears that had rolled down her cheeks, sniffling a little as she turned to look at him with a sad half-smile. "See? I know that cycle too well, getting angry at the guilt and letting yourself feel even more guilty about being so angry which only turns back to guilt later― it's a toxic cycle that we both need to break"
He took in her slightly puffy eyes and tear-stained cheeks with rounded eyes before he slowly nodded and let a small but sincere smile cross his lips, it's effect being contagious enough to widen her own until she let out a half-hearted chuckle.
"Gosh, I came over here to see what was up with you, not to start bawling my eyes out to you," She said, the observation bringing back a not too distant memory of a certain play and she cringed. "Wow, maybe I am hopeless when it comes to overly emotional speeches"
At that Zuko laughed, his own memory serving him well when he thought back to the terrible Ember Islander's play they'd been unfortunate to see, and Katara shot him a surprised look. It wasn't often that he outright laughed as easily as he did then and so the sound of it caught her off guard, but, as she allowed herself to melt into it and laugh right alongside him, she secretly hoped to hear more of it as unguarded as it was now. It almost seemed like the perfect sound to reflect the bright future ahead of the world, or at least how she felt seeing such a heavy weight of emotional and physical turmoil being lifted off of the once closed off prince.
But as his laughter subsided, and consequently hers as well, she couldn't help to notice the far off look in his golden eyes again and, with a sigh, asked, "That's not all that's bothering you though, is it?"
He sighed too, but she could see the corners of his mouth turning up long before he teasingly asked with a glance her way, "Since when have I become an open book to you?"
Her eyes glinted a bit mischievously as she answered him, knowing he may not find it very amusing. "Zuko, you're nearly as easy to read sometimes as Aang is; especially when something is bothering you"
And he didn't, communicating that well enough by rolling his eyes away from her. "That's nice to know," He muttered distastefully though there was no bite behind it, but he still didn't answer her original question. To his surprise though, she didn't say anything either as silence enveloped them once more, though this time it was not comfortable in the least as he could feel a sort of tension in the air that wasn't there a second ago. Not able to subside his curiosity, he looked back over to her and they locked gazes for just a moment before his trailed back to the water, feeling suddenly self-conscious the way her eyes still lingered on the side of his face.
Katara studied his features before daring to ask the question that had been on her mind for a little while, but had never been given a voice until now. "Do you ever wish that I had healed your scar in Ba Sing Se?"
Zuko shot her a surprised look before realizing her question had been the source of the tension he felt and he relaxed somewhat. It was something he had thought about many times if he were being honest, and so his response came with little hesitation. "Sometimes... it doesn't exactly conjure up the best sentiments with it"
"That's understandable," She hummed solemnly and he rose an eyebrow. Subconsciously, she began biting at her lower lip before looking to him and blurting out, "I'm pretty sure the water would have worked to heal it; it was enough to bring Aang back after Azula shot him with lightning so it was definitely powerful enough"
He frowned slightly. "Well then it's a good thing you didn't waste it on me"
"That's not what I meant," She quickly amended with a wince despite his tone being one of understanding rather than accusing. Her words left too much room for ambiguity and she didn't want him to get the wrong idea. "I just... I think it may have been fate in disguise that your uncle and Aang showed up when they did. I mean, even if I had enough for both of you, I'm not so sure it would've been the best idea"
That sent his eyebrow shooting upwards. "Wait.. you're saying that even if you had the option to heal my scar and save Aang, you still would've only saved him?"
"Well, when you put it like that it sounds bad," She breathed out low and in a frustrated breath. Her words were not coming out the way she wanted them to and she carefully thought over how to explain them, shifting her eyes to the sea and taking a deep breath of the salty air. "My Gran-Gran told me once that scars are just another kind of memory... most everyone has some kind of scar they hide inside of them; I definitely have my fair share of them. But just like memories, not all of them have to be bad." Slowly she tore her sights away from the water to look back at him, grazing over the red mark singed on his face as she did so. "Your scar proves that. It came from a bad moment, but like you said, not every curse turned into one, and it's the best reminder of where you've been and where you won't go back to.
"Your father was a terrible ruler, and like you said a sadistic tyrant. Sure, the Fire Nation prospered somewhat under his reign, but at what cost? He lead his entire nation to war under the guise of prosperity and so many people suffered because he was so bent on gaining more power and more prestige for himself that there was no room left for any remorse or humanity. But you aren't like that Zuko," She explained emphatically, turning completely towards him as she continued: "A good ruler needs their humanity, and that's probably what scared him when you were younger. You didn't fit his ideal of a tyrant, but of someone who could lead the Fire Nation into a season of great prosperity and peace without using force or manipulation to get there"
She paused only to consider how forward she wanted to be with the rest of her words, but Zuko interjected before she could vocalize them, his deepening frown having gone unnoticed by her until now. He had been listening to every word she spoke, but none of them drowned out the nagging fear that had been holding him hostage for the past few days and listening to her speak only made it surface with a vengeance. "How can you be so sure of that though?" He asked, half demandingly as he searched her wide blue eyes for some shred of doubt in them. It would've made him feel somewhat better if he could, but she didn't readily give it up so he pressed further. "You and my uncle seem to believe that I'll be the perfect Fire Lord, and that I'll somehow be able to bring honor back to the Fire Nation after all that my forefathers have done, but I don't get why! I've made such a mess of redeeming my own honor, how could I possibly do it well for a whole nation?
"What's to say I won't betray anyone else again? That I won't fall in line behind my father or my sister one day and do something unthinkable? No, I'm not my father or my sister, but they are my family and my family doesn't have the best record for doing good things. There's nothing really stopping me from slipping down whatever mental hole their sanity took a dive into and proving to the world that the royal family has always been and will always be corrupt." A breeze picked up around them and he ran a hand through his hair as the tips of it danced in the wind, his frown deepening as far as possible as he added on, "Even being part of the avatar's bloodline, something that should give me some kind of a fighting chance, I'm still sitting here in a ball of nerves just wondering when my next screw up will be and who I'll hurt in the process."
Katara's eyes narrowed on him, not entirely liking the turn their conversation had taken. "So then, what are you saying?"
He took a breath in to answer her, fully prepared to utter everything that had swarmed his mind as of late, but a hesitant second after her question was enough for him to realize that everything that had been bothering him ultimately boiled down to one simple conclusion, and he released the breath that he'd been holding hostage in his throat with a long exhale. "Maybe I'm not the one who should be crowned fire lord in a week," He quietly breathed, his shoulders sagging a bit as the truth finally hit his own ears and he looked away from her. "I have a history of making wrong decisions; the good could never outweigh the bad. My uncle has always been there for me to help me see the error in my ways, but I know he'll never be around forever so, there's nothing to say I won't turn back to my old ways whenever he's gone"
"You're wrong." Two simple words and his attention was at her liberty, her jaw set in determination while her eyes conveyed the disbelief she felt hearing him talk as if the last few months had meant nothing, but her voice; it was as soft as a whisper and he simple watched her in anticipation of her next words. The corners of her lips had upturned ever so slightly and she shook her head. "Zuko, that's what I was trying to tell you—I've been trying to tell you this whole time really." Her eyes narrowed once again, but this time to a half-lidded gaze as she observed his face and the pink skin around his left eye. "You are the best chance the Fire Nation has at redemption because your scar will never let you forget the pain the world endured because of them. It's why I'm sure you'll never turn your back or forsake your people like your father did. Everything he ever did, to his people and to you, it's etched into you and it'll always be a constant reminder of why you must put your nation before yourself.
"You just said that it doesn't bring up the best memories for you; well, use those as your drive to do better, to be better than the model your forefathers set for you. Your destiny isn't determine or defined by your family or whatever lineage you come from, it's only molded by you, but that doesn't mean we can't use what's happened in our pasts to help shape it into what we don't want it to be." She reached forward and grabbed one of his hands, giving it a confident squeeze without ever breaking eye contact. He looked at her for a moment.
"Why does that sound a little too familiar?"
She smiled slyly as she answered him. "Maybe because you told me once that you thought your scar marked you as the banished prince who was cursed to chase the avatar forever; but even you saw at that time that it didn't define your destiny"
He cracked a smile with that memory. "Oh yeah"
Though her movement was hesitant and she bite her lip a bit nervously, she gingerly reached up to touch the raw looking skin of his face as she spoke to him, and the contact of her fingertips grazing the edges of the scar caused him to stiffen though he made no attempt to pull away; a scene eerily reminiscent of their shared moment in Ba Sing Se before he betrayed her.
"I mean it, Zuko. I know you don't see your scar as bad all the time so, let it be a reminder of why you need to do what's right. Use the bad in your life to fuel you to do what's good; your story of redemption and the honor you restored for yourself all began with this mark. It's just as important of a memory as the rest of them so don't overlook it just because of the bad it represents because... there's a lot of good in it too," She said, a smile tugging at her lips as she let her hand fall to his shoulder and her eyes to focus on his molten gold ones. "Just like you"
With rounded eyes, he just stared at her for what felt like hours, taking those long few seconds to really digest what she said before the batting of her hand against his shoulder brought him back to earth as she let out a light-hearted chuckle.
"Besides, if you do screw up then most likely you'd be putting Aang at risk too since it's his job to keep peace, and I will keep my promise to you from the Western Air Temple so," She warned him playfully with a wink, "don't give me a reason to water whip your fire lord butt into the spirit world, got it?"
He stared at her for a moment before finally smiling and shaking his head. "After we went to find the southern raider who killed your mother, and I got to see firsthand what you can do, don't worry; I'm almost more terrified of you than Aang"
She laughed making his smile widen a bit. "Well then, I guess that's settled," She remarked contently, eyeing him when he suddenly yawned and stretched out his arms above his head. "You should get some sleep while you can." Her voice was soft, but she couldn't help the smirk that surface when she tagged on, "If you thought the trip here was bad enough then just wait until we are stuck in the middle of the ocean tomorrow and Toph starts recapping this whole little vacation—and trust me; you'll know things you only wished would've stayed behind closed doors thanks to her all seeing seismic sense"
As she spoke to him he was already making way to his feet, not able to suppress a second yawn that came with more force than the last, but her ending tidbit left his face contorted into a grimace as his mouth closed again. "Hm, can't wait," He muttered unenthusiastically. She stood up as well and gave him what should've been a sympathetic pat on his shoulder though it lacked any because of the amused look on her face. The corners of his mouth curled up still. "Thanks"
It was simple, short and sweet in contrast to their whole conversation, but she could hear the sincerity that weighed it down as if he'd spoke so much more than it, and she smiled. She didn't respond to him and it was then he noticed they were facing in opposite directions, her to the ocean and him to his beach house. "Are you not heading back?" He asked curiously.
She shook her head. "I've allowed myself to relax this whole week so, I think I'll work on my form a bit"
He nodded and with that they began going their separate ways, but when he heard the sound of her feet splashing into the water, he stopped and turned back around. Watching her move for a moment under the soft glow of the full moon, finding the way her form reflected off the surface of the water a bit mesmerizing, he called out to her. His voice hadn't been very loud, but she looked up to him all the same and he said, "You never really answered me"
Even from his distance, he could see the way her brows scrunched together in confusion. "Never answered you in what?"
"If you had enough of that special water, or whatever it was, would you have healed my scar in the crystal catacombs?"
Part of him expected her to think about for a minute while the other part wondered if she would go off on another big speech about his life and some other river analogy, but she didn't. She didn't need any time to know what her answer to that question was now.
"Without any hesitation," She told him, a warm smile conveying the truth behind her words. And that was more than enough to make him realize just how much lighter his chest and his heart felt as all he did was nod to acknowledge her response, reveling in the warmth that so contagiously spread from her lips through his ribcage, and for a blissful hiccup in time; it wiped away all the doubt that had been gnawing at his heart.
Seeing that he was satisfied with her answer, Katara's smile widened as she slipped into a familiar bending stance, letting her gaze linger on him long enough to say, "Goodnight Zuko," before she turned her attention to her water beneath her fingertips as it responded to the sweet beckoning of her fingers.
"Goodnight Katara," He echoed back as a whisper as he watched her for a moment longer before turning his back to her and continuing up the path to his beach house. As much as he wanted them to, her words couldn't completely put his mind at ease as a few anxious thoughts crept back into it seconds later, but she gave him enough food for thought as his hand subconsciously went to brush along the somewhat rough edges of his singed skin.
Scars are just another kind of memory? He mused, lingering on her words for but a moment before a smile came across his lips and he shook his head. "What an optimist," He mumbled, glancing back out to the beach as his hand rested on the door. "If only it were that simple"
A/N: I know this isn't like my other one-shots, but this kind of flowed out without warning and I actually really liked the way it turned out. It's really just a small moment I thought could've transpired between Zuko and Katara between the time of Sozin's comet and Zuko's coronation scene; sort of a hashing out of some fears Zuko may have experienced thinking of being crowned fire lord so to speak. :)