Title: Wish
Author: Red Hawk K'sani
Word Count: 243
Warnings: None
Challenge: Trying to distract myself from writing the one-shot I have about three paragraphs of on my computer…
Pairings/Characters: Katara, Aang, Toph, Sokka, Zuko; a wee bit of Zutara if you think the cloud of sand in the distance is a "friendly mushroom" xP
"Do you wish," she says suddenly, jolting everyone present out of his dazed state. Tomorrow is the grand finale to the war, the final showdown, the siege of the Fire Capital, and everyone is on edge, seeing his life flash before his eyes. "Do you wish that all this had never happened?"
Aang stares at her, shocked; Sokka raises an eyebrow; Toph looks at her blankly with even blanker eyes; and Zuko lowers his head. Katara somewhat understands his tendency to be withdrawn from their little group, partly from the recent loss of his uncle and partly from the uncertainty he feels about betraying his own country and family.
Katara sighs, continuing her speech, for she needs to break the silence with something and the question has been lingering on her mind for days. "Do you wish that it had gone differently? That it wasn't supposed to be like this? That some of us shouldn't even exist?" She shifts nervously, realizing how personal and awkward her questions are. But she can't stop, for something in her wills her to keep talking, to find out the truth.
"Do you wish that this had never happened?" she asks again, quietly, nervously.
A firm response from a voice she isn't expecting to answer: "No." The fierce golden eyesscorch her own with their fiery sense of absolute truth. "No," he declares again.
She smiles softly. "As I thought," she says, "this was all meant to be."