Title: Stealing the Princess
Prompt: #068 Nostalgic
Notes: Takes place between Boiling Rock Pt 2 and The Southern Raiders. Waaaah, I love the idea of Zuko chasing Katara around trying to make her like him again. It's so damn cute.
Stealing the Princess
Nobody except possibly Bato would ever accuse Hakoda of being a sentimental fool prone to long, drawn out bouts of nostalgia. Nevertheless, just because people do not accuse Hakoda of such things doesn't mean that they aren't true.
So Hakoda watches as the young firebender chases his daughter around, looking like a lost seal puppy and practically begging for attention―positive or negative makes very little difference. Katara, of course, storms and stomps and threatens and waves water whips and narrows her eyes and growls obscenities, but it is she who gently heals a cut procured when the firebender had helped the Duke away from a canyon monkey.
It's so much like Hakoda and Kya once upon a time that the sentimentality and nostalgia practically choke him. Even so, he has fatherly concern to deal with, and he makes sure that Zuko knows just how much trouble he'll be in if he ever breaks Katara's heart again. Katara is Hakoda's little princess, after all. But someone will steal her one day, and from the way Katara blushes during firebending practice, Zuko is turning out to be a rather fine thief.