Stare
Katara stared at the fluid movements of the campfire. She seemed to be lost in her own thoughts and enjoyed the rare peacefulness of the evening. The light breeze blew through her hair causing it to ripple in similar way to the flames. Her eyes were intense.
"Why are you staring at me?" Zuko asked slightly afraid. Coincidentally he was sitting directly opposite her on the other side of the campfire and they were the only ones there. the rest of the gang were surprisingly tired after today's events. "What have I done now?" Zuko rolled his eyes.
"Huh …What…" Katara's mind came back to the present. "I'm not staring at you Zuko." Katara said flatly.
"Oh." Zuko replied. An odd silence broke between them.
Katara mind seemed to be working out something. She sat up abruptly, finally coming to a decision. Slowly, she stood up and walked over to Zuko and sat down. Although she was now no further than a hand's width away from him her eyes remained focused on the fire. Zuko looked at her, shocked by what had just happened and blushing slightly, he didn't know why, maybe it was because he had never been so close to her since…well since. He sighed.
Katara turned to face him and looked directly into his eyes. "Why did you do it?"
"Huh. Do what?" He looked puzzled.
"Back in the catacombs, why did you do it?" Katara maintained her unyielding eye contact with him. Zuko seemed to cringe. He knew that this moment would come sooner or later.
"Katara," His voice trembled slightly as he said her name. It created an unfamiliar sensation in the pit of his stomach. "Many things happened that day. During that time I had just begun to feel like a normal person. Although I was posing as a refuge working in a tea shop," he chuckled to himself, "I was finally free. Free from my feelings of shame, free from my feelings of guilt.,finally able to be myself. But on that day, everything seemed to come back to me instantaneously once I saw Azula. In her I saw everything that I thought I wanted in front of me. All of those feelings of shame returned. Rather than running to fight another day, 'I had to be dramatic'. Azula's words came out bitter. Katara assumed that those feelings might still remain. "And ended up in the catacombs where you were." he turned to face the flames. He could no longer take her excruciating stare but continued to talk.
"Other than my uncle and my mother no one had ever spoken to me you did. You seemed to really care about what I was feeling and my …" he paused and touched his scar. "Situation." Not only that, I felt your pain. We had something in common a very uncommon thing for me".
"I did care."
His eyes remained on the flame it seemed to grow when Katara spoke. "How could she have such a powerful effect on him?" He thought to himself.
"You're the only person I've let touch my scar you know. Not even Uncle has. You just seemed so…" He struggled to find the most appropriate word. "Sincere. As a prince let alone a banished prince, that quality in particular is hard to find in people. Anyway after Aang and Uncle found us I thought to myself maybe I wasn't meant to be free. Maybe my father's power over me is something that should last forever. Fate seemed to be against the healing of my scar, maybe this actually WAS meant to be destiny. That's why I couldn't look at you when you walked away.
After you left my thoughts didn't become any clearer. Then Azula said something that just left me standing. She said 'You are free to choose' in her eerie sarcastic voice as if she knew that in actual fact I wasn't. I still believed that I wanted everything she had I wanted my fathers approval." He paused. "I think you know the rest."
Katara kept on looking at him, he so much smaller now.
"But after I returned to the Fire Nation everything changed, things that I thought I wanted , that I thought would make me happy seemed empty and hollow. I began to realise that I was truly contempt when I was with uncle serving tea." He chuckled again, "And also that I felt truly ashamed of the fact that I had let him down. He had truly loved my like a son and I …." words failed him. "At that moment I knew that I had to make things right. I had travelled all over the world and had seen the importance of true love, love that isn't based on success. I finally saw how wrong my father and his ideas were. I had to make things right." He turned and faced Katara. It was his turn to look her I the eye.
"That's it; I now have no secrets from you. " His hand brushed away a lock of her from her face. She tensed under his touch. "I'm sorry. I truly am, I never should have betrayed you. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to realise who's really important to me."
He blushed immediately after he had spoken. "I meant what. What's really important to me." He smiled weakly.
Katara smiled. "Thank you for being honest. I'm glad you're on our side Zuko."
"Thanks." Zuko said, his smile growing
"I forgive you Zuko." She turned to face the flame. It was her turn to avoid his stare. "I'm sorry for being so mean to you earlier. I didn't understand."
"I forgive you Katara."
She turned and saw him grinning cheekily. They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. Then something strange happened. Suddenly Katara found herself in the Zuko's embrace. "Thank You Katara" He whispered. Katara hugged him back, feeling as though a great weight had been lifted of her shoulders.
They pulled away from each other.
"Friends" Zuko held out his hand
Katara looked at it. "Surely there were worse things than being friends with the Fire Prince." She thought to herself.
"Friends" She replied smiling while shaking his hand.