Zuko x Katara Fic.
Rated M for future chapters/Smut/Lemon - IF YOU are only here for the lemon skip to Chapter 19/20 and on. If you are here for a suspenseful burn with some flirting, angst and smut...go on to Ch1. Please let me know if you are enjoying it - I would like to see the story through for this one!
-xo-
Chapter 1: Fire and Ice
Iroh sighed and tucked the package into his sleeve. He returned to the table, the tea still steaming, untouched, as their discussion had not left room for much sipping.
He turned to the frustrated Fire Lord.
"I think it is time this is returned to you."
Amber eyes caught in a pensive glance, eased around the sight of the gift. Curious.
He picked at the twine, as it fell from the paper wrapped object.
He was surprised at what he saw, but more so, he had a tinge of tenseness in his gut. Mai would have hated this. But then, that didn't matter anymore. She didn't seem to understand the passion that grew in his veins. A moral need to right the wrong.
Perhaps their passions expressed themselves differently – but he had learned long ago never to betray his identity…the self that was not just a prince or Lord…or boyfriend.
He would not become what he fought so hard to stand against, and he would not stand for others to step in for his father's ill will and action in his stead. His mother would never have wanted that…nor did he.
Perhaps his uncle was right. It was time.
She sighed. The bones in her hands felt as if they expanded slightly as she stretched, folding her fingers between each other, and pulling outwards away from her spine. The cracks she felt, between those spaces, let out a bit of stress like tiny breaths. Just a bit of stress. Perhaps enough.
At least the young benders were gaining some more ability. She did not want anyone from her tribe to ever feel as helpless as she once did.
Now, she felt less than helpless. She felt as if her strong willed heart had put her in a place of power…but now she questioned… for all her strong will, had she broken a bridge trying to stay true to herself?
Some would deem her as an idiot to burn a bridge with someone as important as him. She wasn't quite sure if it was burned, but it seemed as if there wasn't a clear path anymore.
She saw Sokka off in the distance, who was creeping around, rather purposefully in an attempt to abruptly scare Suki… only for Suki to instinctively use her Kyoshi skills to knock him down on rather impressively quick impulse.
Katara let out a giggle before she could hold it back. It served her brother right. But what she did feel was a tightening in her stomach, as Sokka pulled Suki down into his lap in an embrace. And likely a kiss.
She didn't look. She didn't want to.
The wound was fresh. Yet the wound wasn't even hers. She had inflicted it.
She needed space. She missed how as complicated and war-torn they had been five years ago, things had seemed simpler. At least the injuries that occurred then she could heal with her water bending. She recalled Fire lord Zuko's injury given to him by his sister. By his impulsive need to protect her. That was much easier to fix. If it hadn't, she probably would never have forgiven herself for being so helpless then.
Although, originally, forgiving him had also been hard.
So perhaps she needed to give Aang that kind of time to forgive her. Then again, she couldn't step down from her own needs.
In her gut…her heart…it just wasn't what she needed. Perhaps her own will to fight for what she wanted was getting the best of her…but it seemed it was always a thirst she had to quench.
"You seem to be a bit absent today my child?"
She turned to see her grandmother, looking out to the same skyline she had been.
"I suppose."
"Perhaps you, young one, you need some time for yourself?"
"Myself? When do I have time for that…I think I'm just a bit-"
"Do not worry about things you cannot control…believe me, you will go as grey as me." Kanna chuckled. "When it comes to that which you can control, most times, your decisions cannot be reversed. So do not dwell and let your path take its own shape. Follow it, and when there is a fork choose again. You can choose the path, but you cannot choose the way the path twists and turns. That is already set in stone."
"Would it be so bad if I took off for a bit?"
"We will manage. Your father can handle the others. The little water benders will manage to practice without you. You are a young woman, take your liberties. We have seen more peace in these years then not. Let your mind and heart rest for a moment."
"Thank you Grandma." Katara hugged her grandmother. "I'll send an otter penguin if I need to send a message. Please do the same."
"Just return before night fall. I do worry."
She nodded and left for the frozen hills before the splashing waves against the icebergs. Sometimes it was nice, just to feel that water and dew on her face, even with the brisk cold air nipping at her nose.
She fell back into the snowbank and looked up to the blue sky.
Was it the calm that irked her? Or was it the shade of blue that gave her a small bit of deja-vu?
Why was blue supposed to be calm? The cooling colour of water, and yet, the way her mind had been, it felt more like a blue flame consuming the peace of her sanity…igniting her.
It had been as he'd thought.
They were trying to continue. They were trying to somehow attempt at beginning wars again. At picking off what they had seen as weaker. His father has been in isolation. It made no sense.
Each of the times he had sent men to stop these attacks, they seemed to slip away. At least those who sat in power. Which only meant that someone on the inside was pulling strings.
His stomach tightened again. He had found out who one of the imposters was once. Even his general refused to believe it. But he would wait to confront this imposter. It would do no good. He would never find out who the leader was.
But now? Here? At a location where one of his allies resided.
He felt an impulse to betray his intentions and send a hawk to her. But if they saw a fire messenger hawk, he put himself at risk of being found out. He also might put her at risk…a fire hawk did not have any dealings with the water tribe right now. Surely, this group would not be sending one right into the thick of their prey…so a hawk would stick out like a red flag.
Or was he being selfish not sending one? Were his old habits of pride taking effect again, now that he stood alone?
If they got too close. If they got too close, he would send it.
It couldn't be pride if his want was to cut the weed by the roots. It would save many doing so and prevent escalation. But he would not let it go too far.
He did not need another woman who hated him in his life. He had done enough in the past to try to heal things with her, just to burn a bridge. He was near certain he had burned Mai's when he had accused her of being impassive to caring about maintaining the peace…and of course the idea that her father was heading part of this campaign of rogue fire nation warriors.
Hers, however, was not one he planned on burning. That thought scared him a bit more than he expected it to.
But his mind needed to remain focused.
He felt the cold air more here than ever. As warm as any fire bender could be the poles did nothing but strike an icy chill.
Extra clothing wasn't an option. He needed to be limber. Any inclination of his lack of climatization might also give him away as a fire bender.
He just needed to know when they were attacking…and who their fearless leader was. Every time he had gotten close, someone, someone second in command was revealed. If he took them down, he'd never nip it in the head.
If he started a war with his own country's people, against his own country's people, he would create a divide.
If he didn't do anything and he sat only in these shadows, as strong as the Water Tribe was, he would be responsible for more deaths of the Water Tribe people.
A pair of azure eyes, glaring at him burned into his mind. He couldn't let that happen again. That would be no way to return the life she had given him, marked with a new scar – a scar of a second chance.
He hid behind the shadows, and moved tactfully between, closer to the campsite of the imposter fire men.
Whispers of war. Whispers of attack. They planned to follow the lunar cycle, the same cycle the Water tribe tended to follow in their nomadic pursuits to trap them.
They perceived this tribe as the weakest. Zuko smirked a bit. From what he recalled, a tribe who could not only bend water, but the ice they were standing on, and heal themselves was not weak. But Fire, as he knew, had an ego, and loved to believe in polarity they were the strongest of their opposition.
But no information as to the whereabouts of the leader. Some mysterious young man…or older man…not ever named but referred to as Lord. A betrayal of their alliance to him. He was their fire lord, and not one that intended to sit as a tyrant behind a wall of fire but wanted to maintain pride and peace.
Yet they reverted to the Lord that sat in protected shadows and used fire only for its destruction.
Old habits died hard. He knew that was true, he just wished it hadn't been in this case.
As he turned to investigate another group of men, hoping to discover key information, he felt a shadow move.
Was he not the only one dwelling in shadows?
He slipped around the shadows of barrels and supplies – this makeshift camp of war-loving men left for many and at the same time, few places to hide. One eye looking too far over a shadow might see him, yet the average man with no need to be suspicious would be ignorant to him.
He was to be, as he was now. A myth.
A louder conversation.
"We'll destroy them. They say the Lord is a powerful bender. We have almost irradicated the water tribe in the past."
A small breath in told him he was not alone.
He turned swiftly on his crouching stance in the shadow of the stored goods and grabbed the individual hiding too.
The smell of salt sea water, and vanilla tundra lotus wafted underneath his nose, from a bounty of hair.
He reminded himself he could not say a word. His identity was no good known, as much as he wished he could warn this person to remain quiet.
And yet, this smell, vaguely familiar, told him his handed needed to maintain a tight grasp on the lip line of this person.
Unless of course, the sweet smell of vanilla lotus and sea salt was the natural fragrance of all water tribe women.