And I overcame the urge to turn this into an AU story, too, so you get some book three Zutara here.
Zuko just had a sword fighting match with Sokka and behaved pretty arrogantly, because of course, he won time and time again, but then Sokka threw his boomerang and Zuko didn't learn anything from the last time that happened. That story is actually part of the comic Avatar The Lost Adventures.
The following happens right after that.
I do not own Avatar The Last Airbender.
Day 14: Dao Swords
Zuko's ego is slightly bruised. Not that it is something new, but he hasn't been bested at weapon combatting in years now!
Technically, he still hasn't been bested, since the rule was swords only. Still, he should have known the boomerang would come back. He should have remembered his first painful and humiliating encounter with that weapon earlier! The moment, it dawned on him, it was already too late.
The most annoying thing?
Sokka keeps bragging about that cheating. And Katara encourages him.
Zuko knows Katara doesn't trust him, and he thought he could live with that, but being insulted all the time... If he would desire that, he would have stayed with his sister.
He knew he would prove himself to Katara and earn her trust with time, but he begins to believe that her anger could runs deeper.
"Yeah, and it's not only your abilities. This sword fighting match was uneven from the beginning. I mean, he has two of them!" Katara exclaims, gesturing around, while Sokka is nodding enthusiastically.
Zuko scowls.
"You only got one, so of course he managed to win more often. It's way more difficult with only one sword," Katara scoffs, while handing Toph a bowl of rice.
They are all sitting around the fireplace, having dinner, while Zuko is leaning against a stone pillar, having claimed earlier that he wasn't hungry, although that had been a lie. Fortunately, he still had some dry pig chicken sausage and dried ash bananas left.
"I think having two swords, while Zuko has only one, everyone here would best him." Katara sounds nonchalantly, as she sits down to start eating herself.
Okay, that's it!
He pushes away from the pillar and walks quickly enough to the group, so no one can say anything else.
Aang and Sokka look nervous, Toph grins, Teo, The Duke and Haru look frightened, while Katara just glares at him. She doesn't even feel ashamed!
"Oh, yeah? Why don't we find out? ?" he asks, and crosses his arms, staring at everyone threateningly. Then a thought occurs to him, and he looks back at Katara, almost smirking. "You against me, waterbender. You'll have my swords, I'll have Sokka's."
Katara's glare deepens. "You're on. Go fetch your swords!"
Zuko is grinning grimly, as he jogs back to his room.
"You, too, Sokka!" he can hear Katara bark.
After a few minutes, Zuko's back next to the fountain and gets into a stance, waiting for Katara to do the same.
She stands with her feet wide apart, one side of her body turned towards him, his swords pointing at him. She looks like she's going to bend, not to fight with a weapon.
He will have to be careful not to hurt her accidentally.
"Uh, guys. You really don't have to do that," Aang tries to stop them again.
"Just say 'Go', Aang!" Katara snarls.
"Hey, Zuko, be kind to space sword, okay?" Sokka asks, sounding worried and a little desperate.
Zuko examines the blade again and snorts. "The way you took care of it, even my sister would treat it better."
No one seems to understand that reference. Of course, no one knows that Azula always broke her toys and never cared about weapons, which didn't belong to him.
"Zuko, can you fight fair and square now, at least?" Aang asks, his worry making his voice sound higher. He seems to remember that Zuko said before his sword fight with Sokka that there was no such thing as a fair and square sword fight.
He nods, but Katara seems to only get angrier at that.
"I don't need fair and square! Come at me with all you've got!" she hisses, dropping deeper into her pose, clearly looking aggressive.
Yeah, if he would do that, she's be dead in two seconds. So nope.
But he could also make her hit the ground in three seconds. He settles for that.
Aang whistles, and Katara comes running at him, winding out with his swords in one fluid motion.
He meets one of his swords, and sees Katara smirk as she uses the other one to try and hit his side.
A classic beginner's mistake. Using the swords solely, she gives up her stand.
With the flick of his wrist, Sokka's sword turns and makes Katara let his left Dao drop. He meets his other sword in time, then reaches quickly for the handle, simply pulls it out of Katara's grasp, whirls her around with this movement, which makes her lose her balance. She falls against his chest, and Zuko makes Sokka's sword's tip and his own sword's blade point at her throat, while shoving his thigh between hers, so that she won't be able to retake a proper stance.
Except for her fast breath she doesn't move, not one bit. She doesn't know that Zuko knows exactly how and how quickly to remove the swords, so that she could never ever hurt herself.
Zuko can feel her heart beat against his chest, and realises that she's not out of breath from the battle, if you could call it that, but because of fear.
She's afraid of him.
He quickly retreats the swords and pushes her into a stance, in which she has enough balance not to fall to the ground. He picks up his other sword, then walks to Sokka and hands him his sword.
Zuko turns around, seeing Katara glare at him. He stares back. "Anyone else want to prove Katara's words?" he asks the group, but keeps looking at Katara.
No one answers.
Zuko nods, only thinks and doesn't say "I figured as much", then turns around to go back to his room.
"Wait!" Katara shouts.
He stops, but doesn't turn around. He tries to be nice, but he won't take those insults from her, and he's too angry to give her the satisfaction of turning around. She shouls know exactly that he's pissed.
"Sokka was only making fun, even of himself, because he knows he cannot beat you," Katara says.
"Hey!" yells Sokka.
"It was friendly teasing, not meant to be mean," Katara goes on, then stopping for a few seconds. "But I wanted to be mean. I insulted you. And I shouldn't have."
It's not an apology. But it's enough for now.
And maybe that's all he deserves. After all, he hasn't done anything else yet than teaching Aang the firebending basics.