/ / /
dare to believe in fairytales
Katara's not sure if she likes either the hippies or their songs, but the story of Oma and Shu is fascinating.
The villages were enemies, so they could not be together. But their love was strong, and they found a way. They built an elaborate tunnel so that they could meet secretly. Anyone who tried to follow them would be lost forever in the labyrinth.
But one day the man didn't come. He died in the war between the two villages.
Devastated, the woman unleashed a terrible display of her earthbending power. She could have destroyed them all. But instead, she declared the war over.
"Their love brought peace to the world," Aang chirps next to her, the look on his face insufferably dopey. Katara keeps silent the entire way to Omashu.
She wonders if the story is true. Either way, she is astonished by Oma's resilience, and even more so by her restraint.
She would have destroyed the entire Earth Kingdom in her place, she thinks.
/ / /
uncomfortable truths, handed to you in the mist of day
The swamp may have an endless supply of water, but the place is disturbing more than it is comforting.
Katara is disoriented, trying to make her way back to her friends. She's drenched, she's tired and she just wants to curl up against a tree and sleep for the next forty-eight hours. She feels emotionally drained after the vision she's just had of her mother, and she can't wait to get back to solid land.
But then something flickers in her peripheral vision, and she turns. It's a flame, so small she isn't even sure it's there, blurry in the thick fog. She follows the wisp, her limbs seeming to have a mind of their own, and doesn't even find it in herself to be surprised once she can clearly see the scene in front of her.
Zuko is sitting cross-legged on the ground. He gives her a crooked smile and offers her a cup of tea. She doesn't take it. She just stares, momentarily forgetting how to breathe.
He isn't really there, of course. She's cried her eyes out over her mother already, enough to realize that. But she sits down and looks at him, really looks at him, or what is the ghost her imagination has conjured up.
Zuko isn't really there, but at the same time, he is, and that's the most terrifying thing Katara's had to face in this godforsaken swamp yet.
/ / /
distracted in daydreams,
you're treading in dangerous waters now
Their paths don't cross for some time. Katara finds herself wondering what he's doing, where he's going, if they'll happen to be at the same place at the same time again.
She makes it a point to tear down whatever posters of him and his uncle she sees, unbeknownst to Sokka and Aang. They are growing anxious, because the weeks are progressing, and they still haven't found the Avatar an earthbending teacher. There's not much left she can teach him of waterbending and they all feel they're racing against the clock, even if it hasn't become apparent why as of yet.
He needs a firebending teacher too, but Katara doesn't let her thoughts go there.
/ / /
you think you can hide,
have your empty comfort then
Toph joins the gang and Katara breathes a bit more easily. She's glad there's finally a second girl in their group–
– honestly, how many times can her brother and the goddamn fricking Avatar compete to see how many walnuts they can shove in their mouths before they get bored–
– and they butt heads on a few fronts, but overall, she's glad. Things seem to be going well for once.
Until Toph proves she's not only a master of earthbending, but also of perception.
Sokka mentions Zuko offhandedly one night and Katara's heart inadvertently jumps to her throat. She decides to ignore the way Toph leans into the conversation, her face slightly angled in her direction.
"Sugar Queen. Why are my feet suddenly telling me you're feeling guilty?"
Katara takes a moment to calm her beating heart and mask the lie to the best of her abilities. "Because we nearly left him to die at the North Pole. He doesn't deserve that, no matter what he's done."
"Uh-huh." It would seem her attempt has fallen flat, but mercifully, the other girl doesn't push the matter further. "Well, I'm excited to meet him."
Aang saw Toph in the swamp and it was what eventually led them here. Katara hasn't shared what she herself saw and she's adamant to keep it that way.
/ / /
it's a family matter, do you really want to get caught in the middle?
But they don't see Zuko for a while. They do, however, get to meet his sister, and that rendezvous has Katara seriously questioning the kind of parenting they were brought up with.
His eyes look so different on Azula, she thinks. The gold in them is steely, determined, cold as he could have been, but somehow isn't.
It is after a grueling night of sleep-deprivation and fights between friends that they end up in the deserted village. It is there she finally sees him.
He fights against Azula twice as hard as any of them, and there's trauma there, some unspoken family baggage she isn't familiar with. Where he's emotional and unrestrained in his anger, the Fire Princess is conniving and calculating. She makes a show of surrendering the battle before her lips twist in a nasty smirk and she points her fingers.
The next instant Iroh is struck by lightning and none of them knows what to say.
Before she can remember herself, Katara steps towards Zuko, offering her help right there with her friends to see. Now more than ever before she allows herself to hope that they may be fighting on the same side.
But he shouts and blasts fire at her with barely a look over his shoulder.
Toph is silent on the way back to their camp, but Katara doesn't need her saying anything to know what her own feelings are right now.
She hopes the general is okay. She hopes Zuko is okay, too. She wishes there was anything she could do about it.
/ / /
but you're caught already, and is there anywhere else you'd rather be?
She can't sleep tonight, but she doesn't dare take one of her midnight walks. Everyone is still wary, and she doesn't want to cause them any more worry. So, she shuffles in her sleeping bag uncomfortably and tries to push away the thoughts that have been trying to consume her.
But then she hears a ruffle of leaves, and the sound must have been deliberate, because he's usually uncannily silent in his stride.
Katara sits up and narrows her eyes in the dark. If she looks hard enough, she can make out the slump of his shoulders as he stands some distance away from their camp. He's spent the better part of a year chasing them around the world, so of course he'd have no trouble tracking them down now. But he won't come any closer, she knows that.
She glances at Toph who's snoring loudly on her left and gets up. Zuko can't meet her eyes for some reason, but she doesn't say anything as they make their way towards a small clearing.
He doesn't need to ask. She's down on her knees next to his uncle before he has a chance to and for the next half-hour all she thinks about is lightning, internal injuries and the unbelievable cruelty one could exercise against their own kin.
When she's done, she stands up to leave, as wordlessly as she came. But then Zuko starts talking and she's alarmed to discover he's dangerously close to tears.
What catches her off guard the most though, is the bristle of movement he makes in her direction. For an absurd second, she thinks he is attacking her, but then his arms come around her and something strangled escapes his throat over her shoulder.
It takes her a moment to realize that Zuko is hugging her. What he's saying catches up a while after. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
Her arms wrap around him tentatively and his grip tightens a fraction. "It's just… he's the only family I have left."
"It's okay," she says softly and hopes to all spirits she knows the names to that he manages to pull himself together. Because she might just fall apart too in the face of his sorrow and they can't have that, not with Azula's presence still looming in the shadows.
"Thank you," he breathes into her shoulder, and she finds the strength for a watery smile he can't see. "I don't deserve any of this."
"It's okay, Zuko," she repeats. She feels him nod and the next second he's gone stiff as a board.
He pulls away and his good eye is wide with realization and, dare she say, horror. His self-awareness seems to have finally caught up with his actions, and any other time, she would have laughed at him. But now she just smiles and waves it off like it's not that significant.
"Why did you let me do that?" he whispers as if he's committed the most heinous crime he can conceive of.
Katara shakes her head with a chuckle. She feels she's about to cross an even bigger boundary than him, but it's now been two days since she's last slept, and who knows when she'll even see him again.
"Because I consider you a friend, Zuko."
Weirdly, that leap of faith doesn't seem nearly as monumental as she anticipated. On the contrary, it feels uncannily natural.
Zuko seems appropriately affronted, as is to be predicted, but he doesn't fight her on it and that's a win in itself.
/ / / / /
Author's Note: We're slooowly making our way to Ba Sing Se, so yeah; fun times ahead. But yay Toph! Any thoughts, suggestions and comments are welcome and greatly appreciated!