Hey guys! Have you missed me? I've missed you! Here's an unrelated drabble just laying around in my headspace. This song was inspired by "It's all coming back to me now," by Lea Michele (I prefer her version)
ZZ
Katara walked along the stage, smiling and waving at the crowd as she reached the microphone.
"Hey guys! I didn't really plan on singing tonight, I was here to enjoy my friend's concert, but since he-" she faux glares at her best friend Sokka, standing sheepishly off the side of her "alerted everyone to my presence, I suppose I shall sing." She smiled and paused as the crowd began cheering. "Thank you, thank you. Since I'm totally and utterly unprepared, what shall you have me sing?"
The crowd began throwing out random songs. One girl in particular yelled out a song and Katara stopped cold. Not because of the song the girl suggested, but because of whose arms the girl was wrapped in. She made eye contact with the golden-eyed, black haired boy of her dreams, the love of her life, the ex she couldn't get over. As she made eye contact with a frozen Zuko, Katara thoughtlessly agreed to the song the girl called out. And when the band began playing for her entrance, Katara froze again. The song was the song that represented her feelings about Zuko. It was a song she had sung to herself after their most recent illicit affair; even now, Katara felt the ghost of Zuko's lips on her hips, and his fingers in her hair.
Katara glanced down to the girl in his arms. That was her. Mai. The girl that Zuko had been dating for months. The girl that he cheated on with Katara, without telling Katara he was in a relationship until after.
And now he's brought her into Katara's café, where Katara sings regularly. Fine then, Katara thought to herself. If that's how he wants to play it, I'm game.
And so she steeled herself, grabbed the mic, and began to sing the song that broke her heart ten times over, in front of the boy who never ceased breaking her heart.
There were nights when the wind was so cold,
That my body froze in bed if I just listened to it right outside the window.
There were days when the sun was so cruel,
That all the tears turned to dust and I just knew they were drying up forever.
I finished crying in the instant that you left,
And I can't remember where or when or how,
And I banished every memory you and I had ever made!
Katara turned her steely gaze onto the boy's face and she noticed with pleasure that his jaw tightened.
When you touch me like this,
When hold me like that,
I just have to admit that it's all coming back to me.
When I touch you like this,
And you hold me like that,
It's so hard to believe but it's all coming back to me.
Katara stayed staring at Zuko, not allowing him to turn away. She saw Zuko draw Mai closer to his chest, but he kept eye contact with Katara. A flame ignited in Katara's chest. The raw pain of her broken heart swelled, but Katara gripped her mic harder and continued her song.
It's all coming back, it's coming back to me now.
There were moments of gold and there were flashes of light,
There were things I'd never do again but then they'd always seemed right.
There were nights of endless pleasure,
It was more than any laws allowed.
Baby, baby
If I kiss you like this,
And if you whisper like that,
It was lost long ago but it's all coming back to me
If you want me like this,
And if you need me like that,
It was dead long ago but it's all coming back to me
It's so hard to resist and it's all coming back to me,
I can barely recall but it's all coming back to me now.
But it's all coming back
As Katara sang, she let her voice soar, the way she knew he liked it; the way she knew he couldn't resist it. And she saw it, in his eyes, his reaction to her voice. But she could tell it wasn't just her voice he was reacting to, but to the pain he could feel in her song. In his eyes, she saw him stroking her side with his long fingers, she saw him kissing along her jawline and into her hair. She saw him lifting her onto his marble countertop the morning after so he could lean over and kiss her while he cooked her eggs on the stove. Katara saw the memories of their tryst hitting him like a ton of bricks, and she knew she could stop the torture by changing the amount of emotion she put in her song.
But she wouldn't. He brought his girlfriend to her café. He made a cheater out of Katara. And he would suffer.
But you were history with the slamming of the door,
And I made myself so strong again somehow
And Katara replaced her mournful gaze with her steely one again. She wanted to rub in her independence of Zuko.
And I never wasted any of my time on you since then.
Katara allowed her face to soften again.
But if I touch you like this,
And if you kiss me like that,
It was so long ago but it's all coming back to me.
If you touch me like this,
And if I kiss you like that,
It was gone with the wind, but it's all coming back to me.
It's all coming back, it's all coming back to me now
There were moments of gold and there were flashes of light,
There were things I'd never do again but then they'd always seemed right.
There were nights of endless pleasure,
It was more than all your laws allowed,
Baby, baby, baby
When you touch me like this,
And when you hold me like that,
It was gone with the wind, but it's all coming back to me.
When you see me like this,
And when I see you like that,
Then we see what we want to see, all coming back to me,
The flesh and the fantasies, all coming back to me,
I can barely recall but it's all coming back to me now.
Zuko stepped back from Mai like he'd been shocked. As Katara, his Katara, wailed into her microphone, he felt all the pain he had ever caused her. As her voice rang out over the speakers, he remembered the feel of her lips on his neck, the feel of her small hands around his waist, the scent of her chocolate hair draped across the skin of his chest, the taste of her skin beneath his tongue. He remembered it all, and he wanted it desperately. The weight of his stupid mistakes and stupid decisions threatened to smother him, and he stepped around Mai, the girl he had stupidly chosen over the angel on stage, and began inching towards stage, where his love sang into her mic as tears began falling down her lovely cheeks.
If you forgive me all this,
If I forgive you all that,
We forgive and forget, and it's all coming back to me,
Now. . .
And if we. . .
Katara ended her song as Zuko reached her onstage. He didn't notice the crowd waiting with baited breath for Katara's reaction. He didn't notice Mai slinking out the door in tears. All he saw was Katara, and her tears falling silently. He could only hope that she would take him back despite his being the biggest idiot on the planet. But she had to take him back, right? She couldn't sing that song about them; she couldn't sing it like that and not feel the same for him. She was going to take him back. And he would spend the rest of their lives making up to her for all of his cowardice and idiocy. And for one shining moment, Zuko felt confident that he would grow old beside his lovely girl, his beautiful soulmate.
Zuko reached out his hand to her, hoping she'd accept it, or crash into his arms. But Katara hid behind her long dark hair, stared at his outreached hand for what seemed like an eternity, and then she turned around and fled backstage. Zuko stood there stunned. He heard a buzzing in his ears, but he wasn't sure where it was coming from. It didn't matter. His whole world had just been taken out from around him. There was nothing anymore. Just that really annoying buzzing sound that seemed to grow louder every minute.
And then Zuko felt a pounding on his back. He turned to Sokka, still dazed, but then the world cleared, and he heard what he had mistaken for buzzing. It was the crowd, yelling for him to follow her.
He couldn't decide if he should or not. It didn't seem like a good idea.
Backstage, Katara was sitting on the floor weeping silently. She'd expected him to follow her, but he hadn't.
Just like he never did. And then, Katara knew, that he never would. Zuko was a coward, and the sooner she accepted that, the better.
If you forgive me all this,
And I forgive you all that. . .
We forgive and forget, and it's all coming back to me
Now. . .
Katara sang softly to herself, but Zuko still didn't show. And so, Katara stood up, brushed off the back of her jeans, and made herself stop crying. And, banishing the thought of him from her mind, she walked out of the door, leaving the little café.
Just as Zuko rounded the corner backstage.
ZZ
Hmm… well that escalated quickly.
Sorry! I'll work on some fluff to make up for it later!
-Romania