Disclaimer: Don't own.
A/N: So awhile ago Kimberly T. made a comment on livejournal about Zuko and a stuffed turtleduck. This has been annoying me ever since. So for day four of secret I give you Zuko's stuffed turtleduck.
Katara wasn't snooping. She never, in fact, snooped (no matter what Sokka or Toph said). She cleaned.
Well that wasn't what she was doing in Zuko's room because it was clean. And she wouldn't clean it anyway since he didn't deserve it. She was, however, getting his laundry. While checking to make sure he didn't have something hiding in his room that he would use to capture Aang and betray them (her) yet again.
So far the worst thing she found where his duel blades and the picture of his uncle. Nothing really to go on. She did find all this dirty laundry. He maybe the enemy but he washed Sokka's socks for her so she could at least wash his clothes. She did feed him after all and he was helping Aang. She still hated him though.
The last place she decided to "check for laundry" was under his pillow. Sokka always hid things he didn't want her to find under his so why should the Prince be any different? Peaking under it she expected to find his secret stash of letters from his father detailing their exact location and how much Aang had learned she found something entirely unexpected. Sure even a dagger would be expected but not a dirty stuffed turtleduck with some of the stuffing coming out of the seams.
She looked at the cute little thing and felt a surge of something for Zuko. Obviously this was his toy and it had seen better days. It looked so…pitiful. She needed to fix it. The Zuko of now didn't deserve it but she could imagine a very small (though still evil) Zuko clutching the turtleduck during a storm. It made her want her stuffed polarbear dog that Sokka made her leave at home.
She took the toy, along with Zuko's dirty laundry with her as she left. He may not deserve her forgiveness or even her caring but the least she could do was fix the turtleduck. It wouldn't take long and it could be seen as a "thanks for not kidnapping Aang and taking him to the Fire Lord while you were on a field trip together" gift. Plus she now knew a weakness of Zuko's and she was going to keep that all to herself.
Zuko dragged himself to his room. After training Aang in the morning and pushing himself after lunch to make sure he would still bend left his body drained. He needed to bathe but there wasn't anyone around to nag him about it and he just wanted to be still for a little.
He'd felt great right after he had finished his exercises but during his cool down stretching his body just gave up. He leaned his body against his door as he fumbled with the handle. Opening the door he sagged in and flopped back first on to his bed with a groan of relief. He lay there not really caring about anything for a good long while until he felt that something was off. His pillow seemed flatter somehow. Reaching under it his hand found nothing. He sat up immediately.
Quackers was gone, his stuffed turtleduck was gone. (The full name of said turtleduck was Prince Quackers of the turtleduck pond given to the toy by a four year old Zuko who was just learning his name was Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation rather than Zuko.) He panicked. Had he left it somewhere in his room? He jumped off the bed and rushed around looking everywhere he could think that he would have left Quackers. Not in his bag, not in the wardrobe, or under the bed or tangled in the blankets. Someone or something must have taken it. He hadn't managed to hide it from Azula's desire to burn everything of his, keep it secret from his crew (though he was pretty sure Uncle knew), managed to be holding it when he heard the pirates planting the explosives on his ship and tucked it into his shirt, carry it around the Earth Kingdom, and, once again, manage to keep Azula from burning it to have someone take it here!
He couldn't think of any reason why any of the group would either be in his room or want the toy. That left his list of culprits down to animals. He guessed it was that flying monkey thing (he knew exactly what Momo was but right now he didn't care). He was going to steal back Quackers without anyone knowing or die trying! Well maybe not die but that was how he felt. He would die of embarrassment if anyone (Sokka) found out about this. But that turtleduck had seen him through some tough times in his life and his mother had made it for him. Sure it was looking a little ratty but it meant something to him and he wanted it back. Now.
With renewed energy Zuko stormed out of his room in search of the animal he assumed took Quackers. He was so determined that he didn't notice Katara walking towards him as he entered the main courtyard.
"Watch where you're going!" She sneered in his face.
"Sorry," he replied curtly. "Have you seen Momo? He has-" he caught himself before he told her about his turtleduck. "My, uh, shirt?"
"Zuko I collected everyone's laundry this morning. Yes, yours too. You washed Sokka's socks for him so I figured I'd do your laundry for you. Once. Don't get used to it."
"Wait, you were in my room?" He asked.
"Of course. You at least keep your clothes in one place. I swear for being blind Toph manages to have her stuff end up in the most random of places," Katara mused.
"Did you let Momo in?"
"What? No. I closed your door when I was through."
"Oh," his face fell. The lemur didn't have Quackers.
"I have to go wash everyone's stinky clothes now, if you don't mind." He watched her stalk away to the refurbished laundry room. Maybe she did let Momo in? No, she would know, Katara knew everything. He searched the main courtyard with no luck and debated searching everyone's private rooms. He decided against that mostly because the thought of getting caught in there by one of them made him reconsider the whole thing.
He gave up (for now) and trudged back to his room. He flopped on his bed again, hating that he'd lost one of the few good things he had from home and hating that he couldn't search everywhere he wanted because he'd be accused of trying to steal secrets.
He lay there half feeling sorry for himself and half angry that he couldn't do what to. There was a knock on his door and Aang happily called "Sifu Hotman dinner is ready!"
"Don't call me that," he murmured from reflex only.
Zuko joined everyone for dinner, sitting between Toph and Aang. No one really commented on how quiet he was, they were used to the Prince staying silent most of the time. He looked at everyone and tried to think of who would try to steal his turtleduck. Sokka was a possibility but the teen was still calling him jerkbender and hadn't brought it would to embarrass him yet. Sokka may have his moments of tact but not where Zuko was concerned. Toph hadn't said anything either and she was more blunt than Sokka. Although she could be using the toy as leverage for more time as her slave. Aang…wouldn't do something like this. Haru, Teo, and The Duke (he lumped them together in his mind) had nothing more against him than that he was a firebender (he wasn't sure if they knew his parentage). They were often too busy playing around in the Temple to do anything like this.
That left Katara. Who had been in his room earlier. Who admitted to being in his room earlier. He wanted to smack his forehead. He missed these things all the time! He could hear Uncle chiding him for not listening when he was too focused on something. She hadn't said anything but that meant nothing. She could be waiting to bring it up at the first moment the others started possibly accepting him or, Agni forbid, defending him against her anger.
"Isn't it Zuko's turn to do the dishes?" Sokka asked as he scrapped the bottom of his bowl for any leftovers.
"It's always my turn to do dishes," Zuko responded grumpily.
"That's what you get for volunteering for the job," Sokka said as he handed Zuko his bowl. Everyone passed their bowls to Zuko and he stood and took them over to the fountain they were using as a sink. He would confront Katara after he was done least she think he was trying to get out of the chores he had to do.
He mused about how he would confront the vindictive waterbender as he cleaned the dishes, paying much more attention to his fantasies of yelling at her for stealing rather than anything else.
"Zuko?" he jumped at his name. There was the waterbender, her hands behind her back in what he guessed would be an attack, considering the way she had been treating him.
"What do you want? Here to make sure I don't break anything?" He really didn't want to deal with her taunting right now, he wanted his turtleduck back and he knew she had to have it.
"No. You haven't broken anything yet so I assume you can at least wash dishes without destroying them considering it's the only thing you can do that with." He was glaring daggers at her. He watched her ramrod straight posture relax a little. "Look I'm not here to argue. I…have something for you. Here." She thrust the turtleduck at him.
Quackers was clean and fixed and definitely not destroyed. He suppressed a happy sequel of "Quackers!" in favor of the much more mature "why did you do this? Why were you looking under my pillow?"
"I did it as kind of a thank you for taking Aang to see the dragons," she seemed a little shy about this until she added "don't expect this kind of thing to happen again."
There was the Katara he knew. "You still haven't answered my question about looking under my pillow."
"I was checking for laundry! I don't know where you keep all your dirty clothes," she huffed. She was hiding something, he could tell. That, however, didn't matter right now.
"Thank you," he said softly. "Quackers means a lot to me."
He watched her try very hard not to giggle. "Quackers? You named it that?"
"I was four!" He glared at her but was pretty sure the effect was ruined by the stuffed animal in his hand. "Please don't tell anyone about this."
"Why would I? Its not like I care about you or anything. It just looked kind of sad before I cleaned and fixed it. Like I said don't expect this to happen again."
"Of course Master Katara," he said with a bow. "Thank you again."
"You're welcome."