"C'mon, Toph!" Zuko looked up as Aang followed Toph onto the veranda where he was lounging on the stairs. The earthbender was steadfastly ignoring the young Avatar's pleas while she lead the way to the portion of the grounds where she practiced her bending.
"We have an important battle coming up, Twinkle Toes," she told him gravely. "And frankly your earth bending is getting sloppy. The attack is in a few days and you need to be ready." Aang groaned and stopped following Toph.
"But I've been practicing bending non-stop all week," he complained. "Zuko and Katara aren't drilling me this hard." Zuko raised an eyebrow at Aang.
"He's right," he told Toph. Aang looked at the older boy hopefully, but Zuko smirked mischievously. "Let me know when you're done with him, Toph. I've been letting him slack with his fire squats."
"Seriously?" Aang groaned. Katara walked up to them just then, carrying a basket of laundry. Aang turned his pleading gaze onto her.
"Katara! Can't you get them off of my case?" he begged her. "They want to kill me with training." Katara frowned at the three of them and shifted the basket to her hip.
"When was the last time you practiced your water bending?" she asked Aang. The boy's face fell. Instead of coming to his rescue, as he expected, Katara joined his other two teachers in scheduling his training session.
"Why don't we combine a session?" Zuko suggested. "After all, Azula's got the Dai Li on her side. We need to prepare for anything."
"That sounds good," Toph agreed. "We can get Sokka and Suki to go over some hand to hand techniques, too."
"Does anyone care how I feel about it?" Aang demanded.
"No!" Zuko and Toph said simultaneously.
"I'm sorry, Aang," Katara said, unapologetically. "They're right. We're too close to the battle for you to neglect your training now."
"But I need my rest!" Aang tried to reason with them. "I'm a growing boy."
"You can rest after we take down Ozai, Twinkle," Toph said, unmoved. "Right now we have to make sure that rest won't be permanent." Aang gulped and his face went pale. Katara saw the look on his face and sighed.
"Tell you what," she said. "Why don't we do something fun after training? We can go into town again." Aang agreed, smiling fondly at Katara. Katara flushed and looked away from him.
"Fine! Fine!" Toph agreed, grabbing Aang's collar. "You'll get your treat later. Katara, you are such a mom!" Katara made a face at Toph's retreating back and turned to carry the laundry basket inside. Zuko reached out and grabbed the end of the basket. Katara looked at him questioningly. Zuko gently pulled the basket down towards him.
"Let me help," he said. Surprised, Katara complied. They grabbed pieces of clothes and started folding.
"Thanks," Katara said after a few minutes. She took a shirt from the basket and shook it out. "No one ever volunteers to help me with this."
"Why do you spend so much time on this anyway?" Zuko asked. "You told me you hate cleaning. And it's not exactly like we're going to be around people who care if we have rips or mud stains on our clothes."
"Okay, so I don't like cleaning," Katara admitted. "But I like being clean. And I told you I clean when I'm stressed, and I've been feeling the pressure lately. What do you do to relieve stress?"
"I practice bending," Zuko said, with a shrug. Then he looked at Katara slyly from the corner of his eye. "And lately I've found that focusing on other people's problems helps me keep my mind off of mine. Speaking of which, when are you planning on telling Aang how you feel?" Katara hit Zuko over the head with the pants she had been folding.
"Alright! I get it!" she growled. "I'll tell him tonight. Get off of my case! Geez! I spill my guts to you one time and now all of the sudden you're my councilor!"
"Fine-" Zuko started to say something else, but Katara kept speaking over him. Her motions became more jerky while she worked.
"I mean can you blame me for wanting to put it off? I'm about to stomp the poor guy's heart, for crying out loud! And why are you so casual about the whole thing? It's like it's a joke to you and I-I really don't appreciate you-"
"Katara!" Zuko grabbed her hands. Katara looked down at the shirt she had been smashing up into a wad.
"Sorry, I kind of lost it for a second," she said quietly. Zuko took the shirt from her and folded it neatly.
"So what else is new?" he muttered. Katara glared at him for a moment.
"Why do we keep coming back to me and my problems?" she asked.
"What do you mean?" Zuko replied, confused.
"I mean," Katara said with great deliberation. "Do you have a love life we can pick over?" Zuko blushed slightly and Katara's eyes widened excitedly. "You do, don't you? Spill!"
"There's not really much to tell," Zuko said slowly. Katara shook her head vehemently.
"No way. There's a story here and you heard all the embarrassing details of my sort of love life. I demand you talk!"
"And if I don't?" Zuko shot her his darkest scowl, but Katara was unperturbed.
"I'll... freeze you to a tree," she said. "After all, it worked so well last time."
"Right!" Zuko said with a snort of laughter. "If I remember correctly I won that fight." Now Katara scoffed at him.
"Oh, please! You would have frozen to death if we hadn't found you."
"Yeah? Well that was the weather kicking my tail," Zuko retorted. "Not you."
"Alright, fine!" Katara said, folding her arms. "I'll just let you make your own dinner from now on. I really hope you make food better than you make tea."
"Fine by me," Zuko said, folding his arms as well. The two teens sat in stubborn silence for a few minutes. Then Katara turned back to Zuko and tried a different tactic.
"Come on, Zuko," she pleaded. "I trusted you with not only my feelings, but Aang's, too. Are you trying to say that you don't trust me as much?" Zuko glared at her from the corner of his eye, and then sighed.
"There's really not that much to tell," Zuko said. "I was dating this girl named Mai-"
"Wait!" Katara cut in. "Mai? As in that quiet girl who throws knives and travels with your sister? That Mai?"
"Yeah…?" Zuko raised his eyebrow at Katara, as if daring her to say something about it.
"Oh. She's um…pretty?" Katara offered lamely. Zuko rolled his eyes and turned away from Katara.
"Look if you're just going to be rude-" Zuko started to get up, but Katara grabbed his hand and smiled apologetically.
"I didn't mean to offend you," she explained. "I was just- surprised. I thought she was helping your sister try to kill you, or something like that."
"She was," Zuko confirmed, hesitantly. "But then she wasn't."
"I see," Katara said uncertainly. "So…how did you two wind up together?" Zuko picked at the pile of folded clothes next to him absentmindedly.
"It's kind of a blur," he said. "I honestly couldn't give you much of an explanation. After the…incident at Ba Sing Se," Katara looked away and frowned, "we started hanging out more. The next thing I knew we were dating."
"You romantic, you," Katara said drily. Zuko shrugged. "Do you love her?"
"Do I love her?" Zuko looked at Katara incredulously.
"It's a fair question!" Katara defended herself. "It must have been hard for you to leave her." Zuko frowned thoughtfully.
"I don't know if I can say that I love her," he said. "I mean, I care for her. But leaving- it wasn't as hard as you might think. It was something that was bigger than Mai and I. I don't think she understands."
"That's sad," Katara said, shaking her head sympathetically. "Well, she cared enough to break you out of that prison. Maybe we could convince her to join us?" Zuko shrugged noncommittally, but he dismissed the idea as soon as Katara had given it. Mai wasn't the type to get involved in the type of battle that they were about to be involved in. Fear had made her follow Azula before- well, fear and boredom, if she was to be believed- but fear was also most likely to keep her from the thick of battle. Zuko found he couldn't blame her.
"Do you think you'll be together after the war?" Katara asked, pulling Zuko from his musings.
"I don't know." Katara looked at him expectantly.
"Well, don't you want to?"
"I don't know, okay?" Zuko snapped. He was suddenly irritated with the girl's questions, though he couldn't say why. Katara pulled back as if he had struck her, and Zuko felt immediately ashamed.
"I'm sorry!" Katara said, putting her hands up defensively. Zuko sighed and shook his head.
"I'm sorry I yelled at you," he said.
"It's fine." Katara slowly put her hands down, watching Zuko warily. "You're even more emotional than I am."
"And you're nosier than my uncle," Zuko retorted, though most of his annoyance was gone. "That's saying something." Katara shrugged with a smirk and looked around the grounds surrounding them.
"Hey, have you seen Suki and my brother?" she asked Zuko suddenly.
"They went to town to get some food," Zuko informed her.
"Great," Katara said sarcastically. "They'll be gone all morning. Help me with this." Katara pulled the last item out of the basket. It was a large red sheet. Zuko frowned, taking one end of the sheet.
"Where'd this even come from?" he asked.
"Best guess is inside," Katara said, shrugging. "it got in with the other stuff, so I just washed it with everything else. If nothing else, we can probably cut it to make bandages or something."
"Not a bad idea." Zuko nodded approvingly. "I hadn't thought of that with the supplies."
"Really?" Katara smiled. "Anyone else would have told me I was being a mama goat-hen for thinking of taking bandages."
"Well, you're one mama goat-hen I'm glad to have on my team," Zuko said. "We're don't have a lot as it is. We need someone like you who can improvise." They finished with the sheet and put it and the rest of the clothes back in the basket. Zuko picked up the basket and headed inside.
"Hey, Zuko," Katara called, just as he was heading inside. He turned back to her expectantly. "Want to help me with dinner tonight, too?"
"Are you sure you trust me to cook after the tea I made?" he asked her. Katara grinned at him.
"I'll start you off slow," she promised. "You can chop."
"Sure, then," Zuko said with a slight smile. He disappeared inside, leaving Katara to reflect on how nice it was to have help for once.
"He's a good addition to the team, after all."
A.N. Hey all! As you can see (if you started reading this in chapter 1) I changed this story from a one shot to a multiple chapter fic. I'm working on these as a retcon of the original series for a longer story I'm working on. Originally they were going to be a series of one shots, but I thought it would be better to make this a collection of one-shots instead. There's no real plot, just a central theme of Zuko and Katara's friendship. I don't know how long it's going to be, but I hope you enjoy them. Stick around for the (eventual) posting of "Avatar: The Final Conflict" coming to a fansite near you!