A/N: So I was thrown a surprise party for my birthday yesterday, and I didn't get to update like I promised you guys I would. I'm sorry this is a day late, but you will definitely be getting that double update on Wednesday. I'll post a chapter before school and then I'll post a chapter after I get done celebrating my real birthday, haha.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but any original characters you might run across.

Shaping Destiny

By: RupertLover09

Summary: Destiny is a funny thing, you never know how things are going to work out… Things change and people change.

Chapter Eleven: Together

When Zuko reached Katara's room after his meeting with the Fire Sages, he found the space completely lacking the waterbender. The scarlet covers on her bed were pulled back neatly and the pillows were placed two high across the mattress. The remainder of the room was meticulously clean and orderly, from the placement of the chairs and couches in the sitting area to the clothes in the open wardrobe. Even when she had servants picking up after her, Katara cleaned up after herself.

"Katara?" the firebender called quietly, shutting the door behind himself.

The door to the en-suite bathroom opened and Katara's head poked out. "Zuko?" A wet lock of her brown hair fell into her eyes and Zuko realized he must have caught her finishing up a bath. She pushed the hair away with an irritated expression.

"Hi," Zuko said, his mind suddenly blank. "Sorry I barged in…"

"It's fine," she replied with a kind smile. "I was just getting dressed, I'll be out in a minute."

"Okay. I'll wait."

Katara's smile widened and she disappeared behind the door, shutting it as she did so. A breeze was sweeping in through the opened curtains leading to the small balcony on the opposite side of the room and Zuko found himself drawn out into the sunlight to brood. His meeting with the Sages had been a disaster. He wondered why he was suddenly so unfit to rule. Yes, he had taken off on an impromptu adventure with a small selection of guards and Katara without informing anyone but Uncle Iroh of his decision; yes, he was young (the youngest Fire Lord ever, apparently); but picking on him because of the fact that he spent his time with Katara? Zuko wondered if the Sages were looking to start another war.

The heat became a little too much after a few minutes and Zuko reentered the cool confines of Katara's room just as she was exiting her bathroom, clad in a slim, high collared dress that matched her eyes and was trimmed in white silk. He leaned against the wall, watching as she tugged a brush through her hair.

"How was your meeting?"

Zuko frowned, thinking of the old men's smug expressions as they told him they wanted him to cede the throne to Uncle Iroh. "It could have gone better than it did."

"Care to elaborate?" Katara asked, fastening the bracelet she had received from the little girl in her village around her wrist. She turned to face him, looking expectant.

The Fire Lord sighed and shrugged. "The Fire Sages want me to cede the throne to Uncle Iroh."

"What?"

Zuko heard the venom in her voice and watched as her pretty features twisted up in anger. "They feel I'm too young and reckless to govern. Uncle Iroh is next in line to the throne and he never abdicated. It's the belief of the Sages that he is the rightful Fire Lord."

"He won't take it, though," Katara said. "He told us so himself."

"It doesn't matter if he chooses to take it or not," Zuko said wryly. "Not to the Sages, at least."

"And they actually have the power to take the throne from you?"

"They have it, but they don't need it in this case."

"That's ridiculous! They can't possibly want you to step down from the throne!" Katara exclaimed. "You've done so much good for the Fire Nation!"

Zuko grimaced, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. He could feel a headache coming on.

"What do you have to do to keep it?"

"They're still deliberating," he ground out. "Whatever it is probably won't be pleasant."

Katara snorted in a decidedly unladylike way and wrenched the door of her bedroom open.

"Katara, where are you going?"

"To give those jerks a piece of my mind!"

"Katara," Zuko said, amused despite himself, "you can't just give the Fire Sages a piece of your mind."

"It's not just any piece of my mind. It's a very large, very angry piece of my mind," the waterbender retorted indignantly, folding her arms over her chest. "That throne is yours, Zuko. Whether they like it or not."

"Regardless, you can't just yell at them, Katara. They are very temperamental old men. If we do anything to anger them, they might make the situation deliberately worse just for their own sick, twisted amusement."

"Well, is there anything we can do to convince them?"

Zuko recognized the flash of determination in Katara's eyes and almost smiled. Lately, he'd found himself missing the familiar sparks of emotion that lit those blue eyes and selfishly wondered how much longer he would have to wait for her to be okay again. As much as he hated to admit it because it sounded weak, he really did miss her. "I don't know that there's anything we can do to sway them," he said slowly. "They've got a lot of power. Anway, Uncle Iroh is looking for a loophole."

Katara scowled and flopped down on her bed. "It's not fair. You've helped the world out so much in the past year."

"Aren't you a little biased?" Zuko smirked, sitting down next to her.

"Isn't everybody?" she teased.

Zuko didn't respond, he just let himself fall back next to her on the mattress, twining his fingers with hers. Neither teen said anything for a few minutes, they were perfectly content with staring up at the crimson canopy hanging over the bed, their legs hanging off the edge of the mattress. The firebender closed his eyes, feeling the throbbing in his skull recede as he let himself sink into relaxation. He wondered why things had gotten so complicated in so short an amount of time. Presumably, it had all gotten difficult when he started sneaking around with Katara. If they hadn't, would she still be in her rocky relationship with Aang? Would she still have rejected his apology or would she have welcomed him with opened arms? Would he, Zuko, have just stood by, miserable and bitter? Somehow, Zuko couldn't see that happening. Not now when they were laying here, so perfectly content.

A knock sounded loudly throughout the room and Zuko cracked open a golden eye with a growl. Beside him, Katara laughed and moved to get up. Zuko tugged her back down into his arms. She let out a shriek of surprise and continued to laugh as he held her close to his chest.

"Zuko, I have to get the door!"

"I'm being selfish today, and I say you're staying right here," Zuko replied stubbornly. "And," he added, "I'm the Fire Lord, so what I say goes."

"And I'm my own person Mister Fire Lord, and that means I do what I want." Katara giggled but made no attempt to leave. Instead, she curled herself into his side, pressing her body even closer to his. Zuko grinned, triumphant. He hoped more than anything that this meant she was back to normal. When her lips pressed against his jaw line, however, he sat up, surprised.

"Katara!"

She blinked up at him with innocent blue eyes. "What? You said we could be together again when I was okay."

"It's hardly been more than a week!"

"Are you complaining?"

"No! I just… Are you sure?"

Katara rolled her eyes. "There wasn't much to get over. The only thing that really hurt was the fact that one of our friends walked out on us. I miss Aang's friendship, but I've missed being with you more."

Zuko pondered this for a moment. He certainly was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but… "This isn't because you're distressed or something, is it?"

There was another knock at the door.

"Zuko. I am not distressed. Yes, I cried; yes, I needed time to myself. But I'm okay. I didn't cry because I broke things off with Aang, I cried because I hurt him and I didn't think I could forgive myself."

He sighed and shook his head. "I worry about you, Katara. I care about you."

She smiled softly, reaching a hand up to caress his scarred cheek. "I care about you, too." Her hand slid from his face and down to his chest where it fisted his tunic. "Now, quit being so angsty, stop talking, and kiss me. I didn't get dressed up for nothing."

Zuko chuckled and removed her hand from his tunic. "Hold on," he instructed her.

Katara frowned. "Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm not going anywhere," he said, taking hold of her body and moving her to the center of the bed. "You are moving, because if I have to kiss you on the edge of the bed we'll fall off." He took a few seconds to admire her. Her damp hair was fanned out on the blankets and there was a genuine smile on her face, one that reached deep into her eyes and made them sparkle.

Her cheeks flushed under his gaze. "What?"

Zuko shook his head and leaned down to kiss her. "Nothing."

It was different to be kissing her somewhere that wasn't a storage closet or a snow bank or a pallet of furs in an igloo. This kiss was so much different than the ones they had been sneaking late at night. The couple was reaching new levels of frenzy they had not yet seen, and the pent up emotions that drove this kiss made it infinitely better. Katara's lips were soft but insistent against his, her hands were in his hair, loosening his topknot. He pressed himself closer to her, nipping at her lower lip and slipping his tongue into her mouth as her leg hooked around his.

The person at the door knocked again and the pair blissfully ignored the taps.

Katara pressed closer to him, easing their bodies into a sitting position. She was straddling his hips now, and by Agni he'd never wanted her more. One of her hands was on his cheek and the other was stuck down the back of his shirt; one of his hands was sneaking up her dress and the other was entangled in her hair. Zuko growled low in his throat, pressing her back into the pillows in an attempt to regain his lost dominance and leaving her lips to catch his breath, trailing kisses over her jaw to her ear and back again as his breath escaped raggedly from his throat. Her fingernails raked across his shoulder blade and he involuntarily sank his teeth into her earlobe, pulling a whimper from her mouth.

Neither teen heard the door open.

"Miss Katara, I have a message from- Oh!"

Zuko looked over at the door to see a very red-faced maid standing just over the threshold of the room, a hand clapped over her mouth and apology written all over her face. Feeling his face flush, Zuko scrambled off of Katara and to the other side of the bed, trying to right his clothes and hair. Katara sat up, too, her hair was still damp and extremely disheveled and her dress was riding up. He could only imagine what he looked like.

The maid bowed her head. "My Lord, Miss Katara, I-I am… I…"

Katara turned about as scarlet as the bed coverings and immediately started straightening her dress, her eyes fixating on anything but Zuko.

"My apologies," the maid was continuing.

Zuko held up a hand to stop her. "You don't need to apologize. What was it you needed?"

The maid held up a pair of scrolls. "A letter from Miss Katara's brother, my Lord. Two, actually. One for each of you." She placed the scrolls on the decorative table by the door and bowed, still slightly pink, before she backed out of the room.

"Well," Katara said after a few moments of stunned silence, "at least the staff will have something to gossip about."

"Agni forbid we should deny them that," Zuko said, returning her embarrassed smile with one of his own.

"It could have been worse," Katara told him, shrugging and sliding off the bed. She crossed the room and picked up the letters from the table.

"How?"

"…I don't really know. But it could have been."

Zuko took the scroll she held out and leaned against the headboard to read it.

Jerkbender, it read. Favor to ask. Watch out for my baby sister. I don't know if you know what happened between her and Aang, but I'd appreciate if you would keep any and all potential scum bags away from her until I see her next. Suki and I are visiting soon. I think my dad is coming, too. Thanks for the help. - Sokka

Zuko resisted the urge to laugh. Sokka's letter was just a little too late, but Zuko wouldn't mind keeping other guys away from Katara. He looked up at the Water Tribe girl as he rolled the scroll up and tucked it into the belt of his tunic. Her mouth was hanging open as her eyes took in the words on the page she held in her hands and then, out of nowhere, she started laughing. Zuko scratched his head, confused.

"Um…"

"Sokka asked Suki to marry him!" Katara said, a smile lighting up her face. "He asked her to marry him and she said yes!"

It was hard for Zuko not to share Katara's enthusiasm. He could feel his own smile stretching across his face as he watched her entire being light up. There was something infectious about her smile and her laugh and he smiled and laughed along with her as she read aloud from her brother's letter, because for the first time she was completely his and she was truly happy and no matter what happened with the Fire Sages, things were finally starting to look up.

Two weeks later, Zuko was cursing himself for starting to think that things were looking up as he sat in another meeting with the Fire Sages. The two old men stood before him in the throne room, their hands clasped behind their backs and smug grins on their faces. He watched them over steepled fingers, his eyes fixed on their wizened faces and not the spot where Katara had broken crying after Aang had stormed out. Fall was coming to an end all across the nation now and a breeze was flowing in through the windows that, luckily, had nothing to do with the airbending Avatar. Katara was holed up in her room writing a birthday letter to Toph. The earthbender was turning thirteen and Katara had readily she admitted her young friend's sarcasm and tendency to be blunt.

"Gentlemen," Zuko said, motioning for the Sages to commence with their 'deal.'

The eldest one, Weizhe, stepped forward, his balding head glinting in the bright sunlight filtering in through the windows. "We have reached a verdict, my Lord."

Zuko nodded curtly, not at all trusting the old man. Somehow, the Fire Sages had managed to gain quite a lot of power, and Weizhe seemed to be the ringleader of a small group of schemers. Juro seemed to be along for the ride and, therefore, Zuko trusted him a bit more. But not by much.

"We have reached the conclusion that you be allowed to keep your throne-"

The firebender tried to not let his relief show. He kept his face stoic and unemotional, his back straight, and the tips of his fingers pressed together.

"-on a few…conditions, if you will." Weizhe chuckled as though he thought he was funny. Next to him, Juro's mouth turned downward at the edges in a tight, nearly unnoticeable frown. "Condition one," the elderly Sage held up a bony, pruned finger. "You share equal power of the throne with your uncle, the retired General Iroh, until you reach the age of twenty."

Two years, Zuko thought. Not so bad.

"Condition two," a second finger joined the first, "after reaching the age of twenty you share equal power of the throne with the Fire Sages until you marry."

Anger boiled in Zuko's veins. The Sages were demanding too much now. They were pressing their luck. The Fire Sages did not exist to rule the Fire Nation; they existed to provide guidance to the Fire Lord and to intervene only when necessary. The limit on their power reached only this far and no more. Zuko flared his nostrils and fisted his hands together tightly in an attempt to reign in his anger.

Juro, perhaps sensing his ruler's ire, stepped forward now. "We are willing to compromise, my Lord."

"I'm listening," Zuko said tersely, his voice strained and his eyes mere slits as he glowered down at the men before him.

Weizhe suddenly looked as though he smelled something bad, his mouth and nose twisted up into a sneer as he looked upon the younger Sage.

"Should you marry by the age of nineteen and one-half years the conditions that Sage Weizhe just listed shall be null and void. We will ask that, during the time before you marry, you share power with your uncle. That is, if you choose this option."

Two options, then. He had two options. No matter which he chose, he had to share power. No matter which he chose, he would have to get married. The headache from two weeks ago suddenly returned to Zuko with a vengeance. Wearily, he waved the Sages out of the room.

"Let me think," he said, pinching the bridge of his nose and squeezing his eyes shut. He watched the Fire Sages file out of the room as a page boy slipped in. The page bowed respectfully to the Sages and then to Zuko who bit back a sigh of frustration. He could never get any time to himself anymore!

"Fire Lord Zuko? Chief Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe has arrived."

Zuko nodded and stood from the uncomfortable throne, thinking that maybe he would see if he could get something a little more comfortable to replace it. He exited the throne room in time to have Katara breeze past him, nothing but a blur of tan skin and red and gold clothes as she sprinted down the hallway, a huge grin plastered on her face. Zuko followed her at his own pace, his head still throbbing. Just inside the doors of the entrance hall of the palace stood the thin and powerful-looking man that Zuko remember as Katara and Sokka's father. He had met the Water Tribe chief twice last year, once after Zuko was named Fire Lord and the other on Katara's birthday that winter. Hakoda was a man who had been wounded deeply by the war, both inside and outside. He was a tough person, one that Zuko had found he held much in common with.

"You've more than earned my respect, son," Hakoda had said after Zuko's coronation. The firebender wondered if Hakoda would still respect him as much as he apparently did if he knew that Zuko and Katara were seeing each other.

"Dad!"

Zuko hung back as Hakoda caught his daughter up in a bear hug, his deep chuckle mingling with her soprano giggles. Smiling ruefully, Zuko wondered if he had the heart to take her away from her father and her people. Right now, he couldn't imagine doing so and shoved the thought from his mind for the time being.

The Water Tribe chief released his daughter and bowed to his fellow leader. "Fire Lord Zuko."

Zuko returned the bow and then shook the hand of his girlfriend's father. "Chief Hakoda."

Preview

"You seem like a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders," Hakoda said.

Zuko chuckled darkly. "You could say that."

"Leadership stuff?"

"Not really. More like…girl stuff."

Matters of the Heart

MotH is my brand-new Avatar fic! It's a Zutara fic, and it's going to be amazing, so check it out! I think you'll really like it.

The Shaping Destiny Playlist

Theme Song: "Everything" by Lifehouse
01. "All You Wanted" by Michelle Branch
02. "The Diary of Jane" by Breaking Benjamin
03. "So Close" by Jon McLaughlin
04. "So I Thought" by Flyleaf
05. "Faint" by Linkin Park
06. "Just Friends" by Jonas Brothers
07. "Lovebug" by Jonas Brothers
08. "You Had Me from Hello" by Kenny Chesney
09. "A Little Bit Longer" by Jonas Brothers
10. "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" by My Chemical Romance
11. "Everybody" by Keith Urban

Winner of the Zutarian One-Shot

Harlequin Jade

Winner of the Zutarian Drabble Series

nephertiri

May I ask that these winners e-mail me any themes, etc. they would like to see in their prizes? My e-mail is in my profile, and if it's not just tell me in a review. I don't really like the whole messaging system on here.

A/N: Not my most favorite chapter, but it'll do. I think the quality declined toward the end, but I'm not really positive. Like I said before, I'm sorry I didn't get this up yesterday like I said I would; you can blame my best friend for that. Anyway, please review! You would absolutely make my day if you did.