Hi guys! School has been so hectic, and work, and everything! Life is crazy.
I hope you enjoy this chapter! Don't forget to review! It makes my day to hear from my beautiful readers!
~nightfall26
katara.
Being alone usually wasn't an abnormal thing for me. There were so many times when I'd looked into someone's eyes and noticed that they had glazed over while I was talking, that they'd stopped looking at me and were now thinking of what they were going to say next instead. There were so many people that didn't have the capacity to love another person beyond the aesthetic value they held, and it was obvious in the way their gaze slipped away from you when you weren't at your best. It was always lonely when you walked into a room full of people you had to impress, a room full of people you didn't know, and they didn't give you a chance. I knew that I'd been alone much of my life. I'd almost fallen into a relationship of loneliness, too, a relationship where I stared into someone's eyes and they saw all of my exterior qualities but didn't care to ask about my wishes, or my dreams, or my heart.
It hurt, sometimes, because I knew he'd really loved parts of me- but he hadn't loved me as a whole.
It was important for people to see me as a whole person, to want to accept and love all of me rather than just the qualities they enjoyed looking at.
So this was a big deal, looking into Zuko's eyes and seeing a love that engulfed me. It was always there, even when I was crying, or when I looked messy, or when I was angry. He loved all of me, even when I had just woken up and my hair was big and frizzy and my temper was bad. Right now, my head was leaning on his chest and I could hear his heartbeat. It was late, and I knew he was asleep. I traced my finger along the scar on his chest and hummed a little under my breath. Something was welling in my heart, an emotion that my lips curve upwards and my toes curl.
I was happy.
It'd been a long time since I'd felt so unshakably safe and so beautifully rid of my loneliness.
We'd arrive at the Fire Nation port in the morning, so I shut my eyes, nestling closer to him and feeling his arm tighten around my waist. The slight chill in the air didn't touch me as I slipped into sleep; the warmth of the sun was on my side.
aang.
I huddled behind the corner, facing the docks and feeling fear collect in the pit of my stomach. I'd never felt so alone. I'd always been able to look into someone's eyes and feel like they were with me; if even for a short period of time. I had the ability to rally people like that. But right now, I felt like I didn't have anyone to turn to. Iroh was a comfort of sorts, but selfishly, I felt like I couldn't completely trust him because of how close he was to Zuko.
Not that I didn't trust Zuko, he was one of my good friends. It just bothered me that he was so close with Katara. On occasion, she'd picked to attend events with him rather than me, and I'd gotten almost irrationally jealous. I had to remind myself daily that they were only best friends.
But that was what was messing with me right now; the overflow of emotion. When things like this messed with me, I usually couldn't concentrate enough on anything to maintain a peaceful state. I was all out of whack.
That didn't matter right now though, I had to clear the way for my friends to come home. That's what they were. My friends. So I took a long, steady breath, closing my eyes and trying to picture Katara's return home as a happy one. She'd come bounding down off the deck, smiling at me, thanking me for helping make her trip home a safer one. Zuko would come up from behind her, a slow grin on his face too. And of course, I'd hug my friends.
They'd hug each other too, and Katara would express her gratitude to him for bringing her back here. To me.
I shook my head. I couldn't get too creative, it'd build my hopes up too high. I swallowed nervously. There were about thirty of Azula's team mulling about on the decks, mostly being idiots. If I could catch them by surprise and knock a good amount of them into the water, I would have a chance. I prepared a ball of air in my hands, slowly letting it build on itself, gathering more and more as the seconds went on. I'd ride in on it, using it to knock men off the docks and then bend a wave to swamp them in. Of course there would be more left, but they would be much more easily dealt with than thirty firebenders all at once.
I jumped onto my air ball, scooting along through the throngs of benders, knocking them into the water and hearing yelps of surprise as I did so.
"Hey! That's the Avatar! Stop him!" One of the men yelled, and I almost rolled my eyes. It was laughable how many times I'd heard that, and they hadn't succeeded in stopping me whatsoever. These guys weren't the brightest. They wouldn't be able to stop me either. I let my air ball disappear, bending a huge wave towards the dock, rendering those in the water useless.
I had a bad taste in my mouth. I really hated hurting people. I'm sure that these ones weren't all bad, they were just following someone who was. They'd made the decision to join her, so they were just bad decision makers, not bad people.
I did end up getting rid of all of them, in the end, and when I wandered back up to the palace, I felt sick. Katara would be here in the morning and so would Zuko and I just wanted him to vanish because then it would only be Katara and I.
I was selfish; but I was lonely, too. I was lonely for her eyes and her kisses and the way she used to look at me.
The way she used to look at me.
zuko.
When I woke up, the first thing I'd noticed had been Katara. Her head was snuggled up against my chest, her hair all messy and stuck just about everywhere. But Agni she looked beautiful. I smiled a little, skimming the tip of my finger across her cheek and murmuring her name. The first rays of sunshine were spilling over us like a waterfall, and I marveled at the beauty that this morning had brought us.
"Good morning." I whispered, as she blinked her eyes lazily at me and smiled sleepily. She made a happy little noise at me before burying her face back into my chest. I laughed at her. I felt so lucky, so unbelievably lucky that she looked at me the same way that I looked at her. I wanted to bury my face in her hair and scream to the world that I loved her, that she was mine, and that I wanted to keep her by my side for the rest of eternity.
"You have to wake up, silly, we'll be home soon." The words were so easy for me to say. Katara squeaked a little, wrapping her arm around my torso and squeezing tightly at my mention of home. Home. The word meant so much to me. I really couldn't wait until it was our home.
"Yes, you heard me right, Katara. Home." I leaned over, pressing a kiss to her head and playing with her hair teasingly. It took us another half an hour to get out of bed. When Katara got a good look out the window and saw that we were nearing my home nation, she shrieked in terror and leapt out of bed to wash her hair as fast as she could.
"HOW could you LET me sleep in, Zuko?! I look a mess!" She screeched from the bathroom, and I could hear the clattering of random objects as she hurried to bathe. I shook my head, amused.
"We'll be there in fifteen minutes or so, 'Tara, calm down." I stood up, dressing myself and packing what we owned back into our bags. By the time Katara had deemed herself acceptable for the world, we were nearly there. Her hair fell in gentle waves to her waist, and she'd braided back the two sides of her hair. Her eyes were huge and wavering and I wanted to cry when I remembered that I wouldn't get to hold her while we fell asleep for a long time. We linked hands, staring up at each other for a moment, realizing that this was the last time in a long time that we could be ourselves without having to hide it.
"Don't forget how I feel about you, okay? I know it's going to look like we don't care about each other, but you can't forget it-" Katara mumbled, the words blurring together in an upset, teary way before I leaned over and pressed a kiss to her turned down mouth. We lost ourselves in each other for a moment, pressing close to each other for a long breath before tearing ourselves apart. I picked up our bags, giving her hand one last squeeze before we walked up to the deck.
The sun hurt my eyes; I squinted. We were going in the back way, which was odd. These type of ships usually didn't go to the back port. Only trade and commerce ships did, and only on official palace business.
"Captain? Why the detour?" I called up to the bristly, white haired man that was steering the ship. Either he didn't hear me, or he ignored me, because we continued on with silence from him. Katara looked suspicious.
"There are a lot of ships in the main docking port, Zuko. There are never that many ships." She muttered under her breath, her eyes scanning the area rapidly. I pursed my lips.
"Don't worry too much about it, Katara. If there's something up, Uncle will tell us all about it." I glanced around, making sure the coast was clear before putting my arm around her shoulders reassuringly and pressing a quick kiss to her head. She giggled, swatting at me and bending a droplet of water into my face.
Sure enough, when we reached the dock, Uncle was there along with a platoon of soldiers and the Avatar.
The Avatar. Damn.
Katara was panicking a little, I could see it in her eyes. She maintained her careful composure, however, smiling a very gentle smile at the people on the docks as she picked up her bag and readied herself to walk down the plank. I let her walk down first before grabbing my bag up off the deck and following her. Aang stood strangely still, his hands clasped together and his legs shaking a little from excitement. I couldn't blame him. It must have been horribly upsetting to have her vanish from his life like that, to up and leave after her gave her his world. I felt badly for him.
But not too badly.
"Nephew! I trust your journey was kind to you?" Uncle walked up first, breaking the semi-awkward silence between the lot of us and giving me a bone crushing hug. Katara laughed a little at his display of affection, swinging her bag over her shoulder and accepting the hug that Iroh gave her, as well.
"It went pretty smoothly. This one, however, was a pain to find." I jabbed my thumb over at the pretty waterbender, rolling my eyes at her. She stuck her tongue out at me.
"Hey now, it's not like I asked for you to come hunt me down. I was just off finding myself in the Earth Kingdom, that's all." Uncle chuckled at our banter, gathering each of us under each of his arms and leading us forward.
"The Avatar has been kind enough to grace us with his presence." He added, and I knew he was pointing out my ill manners towards the boy. I stepped forward, a big smile on my face, my hand outstretched.
"It's good to see you again, Aang!" I declared, and when the boy didn't shake my hand, I dropped it back to my side somewhat awkwardly.
"You too, Zuko. Thanks for finding Katara. I hope she wasn't too much of a bother." His voice was somewhat snarkier than I remembered. My eyes narrowed a little at his brazen show of rudeness towards the girl behind me. I heard her huff a little.
"I wouldn't describe myself as a bother, Aang, but thank you for that lovely compliment. It's awesome to see you too." With that, she marched up the stairs with two of the guards, her head in the air.
"Oh, now you've done it." Uncle was chuckling again, this time at the Avatar, who had his head in his hands.
"I can't believe I said that." He chided himself, his face red with chagrin. I clapped a hand on his shoulder.
"You know how she is with the whole forgiveness thing, Aang. Give her a little bit to warm up." I teased, following my Uncle and Katara up the stairs to the Palace. Aang came along somewhat dejectedly.
When we were inside the main throne room, Uncle faced me with a grave expression.
"I'll explain why you had to go in the back port, Zuko. Your sister has returned, bringing an army with her, and she's been sitting out in the harbor for the past few days without any showing." My eyes were huge and wide with surprise, and almost instinctively, I reached my hand out towards Katara. I was a little hurt when she didn't return my show of affection.
It was hard for me to remember that Aang was standing in the corner, facing away from us, staring at the military maps and glowering.
"What do you suggest, Fire Lord?" Katara looked up at me with eyes that regarded me with respect. Iroh nodded at her question, agreeing.
"The people need you, Zuko. They need you to lead them. They're frightened." He spoke, reaching over to the table next to him and picking up his tea cup. I stood a little straighter, fussing with my hair a little.
"Tomorrow, gather everyone in the main square. I'll talk to them, calm them down, make them understand that they have nothing to fear so long as I'm around." I spoke bravely, but inside, I was trembling. Would I be targeted? I didn't know what I was up against. Not that I was afraid of Azula, per se, just that she'd unnecessarily harm my people. They'd already been hurt. The explosions that had gone off the other day would have to be taken care of soon. I'd see to it.
"No, Zuko, that would make you such an easy target to Azula!" Katara exclaimed, and the fear in her expression made my heart swell a little with happiness because she was worrying about me.
"But that's what she isn't expecting. She doesn't expect her little brother to show his face in this kind of mess. She thinks I'm going to hide." I glanced up at Aang.
"People need a leader, so that's what I'll be." I said the words with extra emphasis, realizing in that moment that he'd been here the whole time and hadn't done anything to help our cause. He'd just been fretting over Katara. I narrowed my eyes at the kid with slight frustration. Yes, I loved Katara more than anything, but I had a duty to help my people. Didn't he have that duty to help all of the Nations? That was kind of his job description.
"I'm going with you." Katara's words shocked everyone in the room. Aang jumped a little, his eyes wild with terror as he looked at the girl standing so strongly, so independently, and yet offering herself up to stand in danger with me.
She was already walking through fire and brimstone being here at all, she was already accepting that if we were to tell everyone about our relationship, life would be extremely difficult for her for some time. Nobody would accept her.
But she was facing it all with grace and confidence. I offered a ghost of a smile to the girl who loved me with all her heart and then some; and thanked the gods that someone so passionate and beautiful had chosen me.
toph.
I was packing again, stuffing random clothes in a bag and not really caring what I grabbed.
"Yes, I know, you don't want me going to the Fire Nation. No, I really don't care what you have to say. I totally have been there before."
"But Toph, you just came home!" My mother. Good gracious.
"Come on now, I've saved the world once, this is easy stuff."
Sass was easy for me, especially when it came to my parents. I was boarding a ship to the Fire Nation because my good friend Iroh had asked for my aid. Zuko and Katara were in danger, he said, as well as the entirety of the Fire Nation. What a battle.
I was excited, honestly, I missed a good fight. I liked chucking rocks at things and sassing Sokka around. But I was especially thrilled because Katara and Zuko were finally together. I would get to tease the hell out of them. After listening to their freakish heartbeats around each other, I couldn't stand that they were lying to themselves about wanting to be with other people.
Sparky and sweetness would have beautiful fire and water babies, I was sure of it.
I'm sorry for such a short chapter! I've been so busy.
I hope you liked it (:
I'd really appreciate some reviews before I update again!
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Love,
nightfall26