Because Katara and Zuko are, as far as we know, the only two members of Team Avatar who are still alive, which fills me with all kinds of feelings.
Katara and Zuko still keep in touch. Today, after Katara's visit to Air Temple Island has come to an end and Zuko's job as an ambassador has been finished, they meet in The Jasmine Dragon for old times'
sake.
They sit across from each other at a wooden table, legs crossed in front of them and tea cups in their hands. An antique teapot that had once belonged to Zuko's uncle holds jasmine tea, which Zuko pours for himself and Katara. "It'll never quite be the same as Uncle's tea," Zuko laments as he raises the cup to his lips.
Katara sighs, then smiles. "It feels like so long ago," she ponders, eyes surveying the shop's main room, "Iroh making tea, Sokka trying to paint, all of us alive and well…" Her voice trails off, and then she adds, "but in a way, it kind of feels like yesterday, doesn't it?"
"In a way." Zuko laughs gruffly. "It feels like just yesterday that you hated my guts," he jests lightly. "But in a way, yeah, it feels like an eternity's passed since I was a prince." He puts a hand on his chin to stroke his beard thoughtfully. "I was a completely different person back then."
She chuckles, and then Katara pipes up, "Remember when I threatened to kill you?" Her eyes are glinting as she smiles amusedly at the memory.
"Oh yeah," the former Fire Lord cries, "right after I joined your group!" He laughs again, this time a fuller, heartier laugh. "Spirits, you scared me! I still remember it: 'you give me reason to make me thing you might hurt Aang…'"
"'…and I'll make sure your destiny ends right then and there, permanently.'" Katara smirks. "A lot has changed since then, hasn't it?"
Zuko smiles back at her in agreement. He catches her gaze lock on the balcony, where a young couple sat with their arms around each other. Her eyes clouded over, her expression choked with nostalgia.
"You miss him, don't you?"
Katara nods and looks out to the balcony. The room held memories, ghosts of their old friends and old lives, phantoms of stories they had told in this very room, kisses Katara had shared with her now-deceased husband, and, most of all, the feeling of wholeness that there had been, though neither she nor Zuko had ever thought to acknowledge it before, when everyone she loved was there.
The Jasmine Dragon was a source of solace for the two of them, a reassurance that some of their old lives were still intact, but it was also painfully empty, with multiple poignant voids—Aang, Sokka, Toph, Iroh, Appa, Momo, Suki, and Mai—that could never be filled again.
"Of course I do," she replies remorsefully, nodding slowly "of course."
The former Fire Lord sighs. He looks down at his hands, at the teacup he is holding. "I do, too, Katara."
The former Avatar's wife and best friend sit in silence, a thick, maudlin pause filling the air.