This is set after the comic The Promise about something that always made me angry.
Day 3: Season 4 Zutara
Biting her lip, she tries to calm her nerves as she raises her hand to knock on the door.
"Come in!" Zuko's voice sounds from within the study, and Katara reaches for the door knob.
Opening the door, she hesitantly sticks her head into the room. "Hi?"
"Katara!" Zuko sat behind his desk, but now he immediately stands up, and walks over to her. He seems a little nervous to her, and still doesn't look totally healthy. His cheeks still seem too hollow, the shadows under his eyes are still too dark, and she can tell that his wrists look too thin, too. Maybe he should have rested longer at his Uncle's, before coming back to Yu Dao.
"Do you have a minute?" she asks quietly. It won't be bad if he doesn't have time. She can come back another time. The problem is just that she might not have the courage to come back another time.
"Yeah, sure. What is it?" he says instead, clasping his hands behind his back, looking slightly intrigued.
Swallowing, she fully enters the study, and closes the door behind her. She grabs the elbow of her other arm, and looks anywhere but him. "I just... I wanted to apologise."
"For what?"
She looks back at him, sees the frown on his face, and realises he has no clue what she's talking about.
"For... not doing more. I stopped Aang, because he would have regretted it later, but you also didn't deserve it, and at first, I really thought you wanted to keep the colonies for yourself, and that somehow your power as Fire Lord has corrupted you, and that you went into the direction your father went into, and I should have known that you would never do that, and that you would have never wanted the colonies for your nation alone, because you worked so hard on restoring the Fire Nation's honour, and I am so, so, so sorry!" After having said everything, she takes a deep breath of air, and looks up at him, worrying that he might not forgive her.
His frown of confusion has only become worse. "Katara... You don't have to apologise for that. It's understandable."
She blinks once, then twice, when she notices that he's serious. "No, it's not! You're my friend, and I immediately thought the worst of you! That is unacceptable!" To emphasise her point she makes a cutting motion with her hand.
Zuko shakes his head. "I've already done bad things, so it's not strange to assume I'd do them again."
"But you won't!"
He shakes his head again. "No, I won't, but you couldn't know that, so everything is really okay."
"I cannot believe you're taking this so lightly!" Stemming her hands on her hips, she doesn't know how else to confront him about his obviously way too low self esteem.
"What do you mean?" he just asks, but sounding a bit annoyed now, too.
Everything she's been thinking and worrying about in the past few days comes back with a crashing power, and her lips start to tremble. She doesn't know, if she's about to cry, because she's still so mad at herself, or because her friend thinks so lowly of himself.
"I know what you've been through," she starts, and takes a deep breath to continue to speak. "You confided in me, and I know more about you than any of the others. I know how your childhood was, I know why and how you were banished, I know exactly what your father all did to you, how you were treated, and how much you sacrificed just to end the war." Tears start streaming down her face. "I know how good you are," she keeps on saying, even as his upset face becomes blurry. "I know it, really, I do! I know how much happened between you and your father, and that you never want to become like him. I know how important honour is to you, and that you only want to do the right thing. I know all that, okay?" In a frustrated manner, she throws her arms up, and looks somewhere else.
Blinking the tears away, she looks back at him, who seems not to be comfortable with a crying girl in front of him. But she doesn't care. She has to say her piece.
"And yet... And yet I was able to assume you had become like him. I was ready to believe that you might be our next enemy. And yes, you once had been, but that is not important to me, at all. You changed, and I forgave you, so the bad things you've done don't exist to me anymore. So, I was okay with my friend suddenly having turned evil, and my boyfriend having to kill him," she sobs. After this sentence more tears seem to come.
"And I don't know how I could have done that, I have no idea, and all I know is that I should have pushed Aang harder, because if he had not miraculously had a change of heart, you would be dead, and it would have been my fault, too." Through the tears, she takes a deep breath again. "So I'm sorry for thinking badly of you, and I'm sorry for not trying to protect you more. I... I know I healed the wound Azula inflicted, but that's not the same as jumping in front of lightning, and my debt is definitely not repayed, because healing is natural, it is a duty, and..." She doesn't notice how she's leaving the topic, and starting to ramble. "... I wouldn't have hold it as a debt, and I'm sorry for not repaying the debt. I should have jumped in front of you." She takes a deep breath again, also to clear her nose and thinks of what to say next, but to her relief nothing comes to her mind.
When she looks back at Zuko, he's staring at her with an odd look on his face, his eyes incredibly wide, even the burned one seems to be as wide as his healthy one usually is. Red colour is also spread on his pale cheeks, and the rest of his face seems even paler than normal.
He looks a bit sick, tired, and exhausted. More like a little boy than the head of a state.
"I... I don't know what to say," he manages to say, after many seconds have passed.
Katara wipes her tears away and sniffs. "It's okay. I just want you to consider yourself more important and more worthy of your friend's trust, because you do deserve it, and the way we treated you is unforgivable. But please, find it in your heart to forgive us, so that we can make it up to you, and prove that we're worthy of your friendship." She smiles up at him, and sees how his eyes grow even wider at her words, and his mouth opens, but no words come out.
He makes a few noises in his throat, as if he wanted to say something, but nothing is coming out.
Katara is glad that she was able to say all of that to him, and she hopes he won't get mad later, after he will realise how right she is. So she uses the opportunity and gives him a tight hug, squeezing his waist, as she presses her cheek to his chest. Wow, that Fire Lord fabric is damn soft.
"I... I'm sorry for hurting you," he rasps, as she feels his arms coming around her, pressing her closer to him.
Frowning, she looks up at him. "What do you mean?"
He losens the grip on her waist a little so that more space is between them. "When you attacked my soldiers, I stopped you and hurt you in the process. I'm sorry."
She smiles up at him. "Don't worry about that. Just think about letting your friends know when you're going through tough times." She pulls back even more, and pokes her finger in his chest. "And get more sleep, and eat more!"
He smiles sheepishly, showing his teeth in the bad imitation of a reassuring smile.
Rolling her eyes, she presses her cheek again against his chest, hugging him just for a bit longer, before he will understand how badly she treated him, and before he can hate her.