Zutara Week. Day Four. Secret.

I own nothing! Zuko, Katara, Aang, Zhao, Blue Spirit, platypus-bears, and anything else recognizable belong Mike/Bryan/Nickelodeon/Viacom!

Zutara Week 2011 is, of course, run by the lovely trishna87, senbo-sama, AnimantX, and Irrel on deviantART. Best wishes to GreenifyME, who unfortunately couldn't participate in ZW this year.

Transitive Properties

It was a bad idea. Katara knew it too, knew that she shouldn't be out in the midnight-swathed forest and definitely shouldn't be looking for Zuko. It was so stupid and reckless, but she couldn't shake the aura of paranoia that clouded her mind.

She wandered through the dense thicket of trees that bordered the Air Temple, weaving around silver-barked trunks and ducking under branches by the moon's dim gleam. Mosquito-moths swarmed heavily in the humid air and spread a perpetual itch over Katara's exposed skin.

Eventually, she saw the warm glow of fire searing against dark shadows. Standing just outside of his makeshift camp, which was composed of the small fire and a red tarp poorly knotted among drooping limbs, she watched him for several long moments.

He sat cross-legged in the dirt with a chipped teacup. Dark circles pooled beneath weary eyes, and his silk shirt was covered in grass stains and dust. In his lap rested an oblong shape of wood, painted the colors of dusk and moonlight. He ran his fingers over the horns and blunt fangs before sighing and setting it down next to him.

That mask…it couldn't be, could it?

Months ago, before she had mastered her element, she had been attacked by a platypus-bear while searching for wild berries and maybe some carrots in the agrestic region of the Earth Kingdom. Her water whip simply hadn't been strong enough back then, and right as she thought that she'd be bear-chow, a disguised figure wielding broadswords was fending off the animal.

He—she had assumed it was a he—had sheathed his swords as the creature skittered away, turning toward her and sweeping into a bow. Katara had been terrified, and the figure cocked his head to the side, silently inquiring about her well-being. With the exception of her deafening pulse, she was fine, and she nodded. The masked man reached a gloved hand out to her. Carefully, he had brought her hand to the wooden lips of the mask, then disappeared into the copse of trees before she could gather her bearings.

Now, as the familiarity of the intimidating, scowling mask began to weave its way to the front of her memory, questions upon questions began to collect in the basin of her thoughts. If Katara had been saved by the Blue Spirit, and the Blue Spirit was actually the boy who had hunted her and her friends across the globe, then…

Logic and reason were lost on her, and she made the mistake of parading into his camp unannounced and was thus met with a barrage of instinctual flames. She was barely able to wring the water out of a nearby tree to protect herself in time.

"Zuko!" she screeched.

Once realization surfaced in his exhausted eyes, he swore and a torrent of apologies followed soon after. He tripped over his words, trying to say so much at one time and his mouth unable to keep the pace with his mind. "Shit, Katara," he cursed, standing and rushing to her. "I didn't mean to—well, I did, but not at you, and if I knew it was you…" He stopped himself short, took an exasperated breath, and asked, more calmly, "Did I hurt you?"

"I'm fine," she muttered, aggravation flooding her voice. Oblivious, the tension in Zuko's shoulders eased, though his expression remained cautious. She pushed past him to pick up the mask.

"You're the Blue Spirit?" she accused.

Zuko stared at the withered tree behind her in muted fascination. "Yes." There was no point in lying, he figured, and doing so wouldn't be in his best interest anyway; she was the one he needed to impress, the one that he needed the approval from most, so handing her lies and deceit was not the way in which to go about get her trust.

"Why didn't you tell us? You could have saved all of us a lot of trouble."

He decided that telling her that it was her own fault, that she wouldn't give him the time of day let alone have an entire conversation with him, would be one of the dumbest things he could say. "Everyone has their secrets," he answered instead.

Katara shook her head incredulously. "Yeah, but this is kind of important! You're a hero among Earth Kingdom villages! That's not something you keep to yourself." As she talked, Zuko glanced from the ground to the fire, avoiding her piercing blue stare.

"The Avatar knows."

Her brow furrowed. "…What?"

"Zhao captured him and I—well, the Blue Spirit—let him go. Then when Zhao's archers attacked me, the Avatar made sure I wasn't hurt. He told me we could be friends."

The waterbender looked surprised, shocked that Aang, too, had kept Zuko's alternative identity hidden from her. "Aang's good at keeping secrets," she murmured with a minute nod of her head.

Uncomfortably, they sat in silence then, neither of them looking at each other but neither of them making any move to get up. Zuko offered her tea once, to which she declined, and the stiff hush of the night descended upon them once more.

After too many of minutes of awkwardly avoiding any form of communication, Katara sighed and lifted her gaze to him. "Why did you save me, all that time ago?" she asked. His ocher eyes widened, as if startled by the question, and he threw twigs into his fire to buy time. She could see him trying to piece together a response in his mind.

"You are the Avatar's friend. He needs you, and the world needs him, which means the world needs you to play your part." Zuko bit his lip for a moment before meeting her eyes. "Which means I need you."

"Oh," she whispered, rendered speechless. Her jaw set, and she took a long, shuddering breath. Paralleling his words, she said, "This war must end, but Aang needs a firebending teacher to do so. You're pretty qualified to train him. I guess…I guess that means we need you, too."

Well. This would have been better for Mask (but that'd be too obvious) or even Caught (but I had a different idea for that), but you know. Prompts are tricky little things to work with.

But here we are, with some minor Zutara filler stuff where Katara went to see Zuko instead of Toph in the Western Air Temple episode. I don't like this one as much as I could…

Yay for math terms as titles! Actually, I hate math, but I guess it's kind of in honor of a friend who I haven't seen much of recently, which is really sad. So even though she won't read this because she's not part of the Avatar fandom, this is for her. (:

Review, please?
Tchao, Zutarians.
Erika
xoxo