Zutara Week 2015 Fanfiction ~ Happenstance

It's down to me and you.

In this cold and empty room.
Forgotten what we're dying for.

Just tell me what to change.
Just tell me what to say.
'Cause I can't feel it anymore.
But why are we so incomplete? 

But things had changed. Aang had now mastered waterbending. And while it was true that he still needed to train to stay in shape, they didn’t train as much as they did before. When they were hiding in the Fire Nation they had to limit their bending to avoid being caught and hopefully avoid rumors and suspicion.

Here in the Western Airtemple they were shielded from the world above. But there were no place for quiet chitchat. No place where she and Aang could spend some time alone without being disturbed. Besides, he didn’t need her anymore. And now all she could do the rest of their days watching him training with the banished prince.

She felt pathetic and lonelier than she ever felt before. Everyone started to open up to him. Especially Toph and Aang. She thought that Toph – being the lie detector and all – would see through his act and disguise, but it backfired. She has actually become very fond of the firebender. And Aang, the one person that the firebender wanted more than anything and would hunt down to the end of the world, was the one Katara thought would be the last one to accept the prince as a part of the group. But he did it instantly, and now when you look at them together, you would think that they’ve been friends right from the start. Their trip to the Sun Warrior’s temple really bonded them together, now they act like nothing has ever happened. Just the thought makes Katara sick, how can Aang just forget it like that? How can he suddenly act like nothing is wrong? Like Zuko’s mistakes were so easy to forgive. So easy to put behind.

Katara had had enough. She placed her hands firmly on the cold stone and jumped down from where she and Toph had been resting.
“Going somewhere Sugar Queen?”
Katara said nothing, she simply turned her head towards the guys and was relieved to see that they hadn’t noticed them. She was glad that Zuko was too occupied with Aang or this situation would’ve been ten times more awkward.
“Toph, can you look out for them?”
“What makes you think that I would do that^?” Toph smirked.
“Please Toph. For me?” Katara pleaded a little. She knew that Toph rarely did favors but she prayed to Tui and La that Toph would listen just this time.

Even though Toph couldn’t see the plead in Katara’s eyes she could definitely hear it. And she knew that this wasn’t one of those times to put up an argument with her. She simply sat up as she put her elbow on her knee and her hand on her cheek and sighed.
“Whatever. There’s not much to do here anyway.”
Katara smiled gratefully as she walked away from the training grounds towards her room. As she passed by the fountain she spotted her brother with Haru, Teo and The Duke. By the looks of it they must be discussing something really interesting - Sokka was waving with both his hands and Teo stroke his chin with a confused face. Katara stopped for a minute to listen.

“I’m just saying that that would really be something!” Sokka exclaimed.
“But wouldn’t the fire melt the metal? Or at least make it less sharp?” Teo asked.
“We can ask Zuko when he returns!” The Duke happily shouted as he stretched out his arms. The others shined up and nodded in agreement.
“You’re right, Zuko’s a firebender AND a master swordsman. I bet he could demonstrate it for us with his Dual Dao swords later.” Sokka said with a grin on his face.
“Finally some action!” Teo said as he put his hands on his wheels and rolled back and forth.
“Yes, that was a good idea Duke” Haru said with a small smile.
“I’ve told you, it’s “THE” Duke!” Haru just shrugged his shoulder and looked up.
That was when he noticed Katara and smiled as he waved at her. She gave a forced smile back as she continued to walk down the corridor. When she was out of sight she firmly clenched her fist and teeth.

Everywhere she went, every word she heard, it was always him. Always the banished prince that everyone were talking about. And it upset her more than anything. Why couldn’t the others understand? Why couldn’t they see what she saw?
Because they weren’t there. They didn’t see him they way you did.
Yeah, that was it. She was the only one who knew. The only one who saw his true self.
The only one who he opened up to. The only one who saw him at his lowest point.
Shut up! She told the voice inside her head. But the voice didn’t stop there.
Admit it, you know you were the only one who he felt comfortable around.
He betrayed me! He was the one who played with my feelings!
But he wasn’t the only one, was he?

Before Katara could control herself she fiercely kicked a piece of rock that probably Toph had dragged with her and left.  Without caring where it went she stomped forward.

Until she heard it.

A thumping sound of rock meeting wood bounced on the walls in a light echo. Katara winced as she turned around to watch the mess she might have caused. Instead she found a door which now was slightly ajar – the rock lying next to it. She stood there confused before it clicked inside her head. This was Zuko’s room. The rock must have hit the door and made it open a bit. A smirk spread on her lips. Zuko was busy training with Aang and Toph was looking out for them while Sokka and the others were having a discussion. This was the perfect time for her to finally find out what Zuko was hiding in his sleeves!

She walked up to the door – being careful that no one had noticed her – before she entered and closed the door behind her as quiet as she could. When she turned around she scanned the room with her eyes trying to find anything that looked suspicious. But it looked like any normal teenage room. His bed was bedded almost to perfection with his clothes on top of it – folded and all. His bag was placed right next to the bed against the wall, so was his swords in his scabbard. Katara had expected – him being a prince and all – that once he was outside the palace walls, he would have no idea how to take care of himself. But by the looks of it, it seems that he likes to keep it clean, just like herself. Katara just shook her head to get rid of the thoughts and made her way to the bag and kneeled down in front of it. She licked her dry lips and felt how her hand started to shake nervously when she reached for it. Finally she was going to prove the others wrong! Finally she was going to show them how wrong they were to accept the firebender into their group! She felt something hard and flat against her skin – probably a book of some sort – and almost jumped in triumphal. She quickly pulled the item out.

She could only stare in shock and wonder as a face looked back at her. It took her mind a while to register that what was in her hand hadn’t been a book, it was a painting. It took her a bit more to remember why the face was so familiar. It was a picture of Iroh, The Dragon of the West. Katara couldn’t help but smile at the portrait as she studied his face, even though the picture was in black and white she could still feel the warmth of Iroh’s eyes as she looked at them. The gentle and caring touch in those golden eyes that separated him from the rest of the Fire Nation. The painter is very skillful, he had catched every single trait that represented the retired general – even the wrinkles – but instead of making him look old and tired he looked very young in a playful matter. The picture didn’t seem to be very old, by the looks of Iroh’s features.
But why would Zuko keep a painting of his uncle when he was the one who betrayed him?
Instead of answers she got more questions. Questions that was left unanswered.
 
Katara put the painting down gently as she started going through the rest of Zuko’s stuff. But she couldn’t find anything that could prove the prince’s guilty.
Instead she found another portrait of a lovely young woman, two books, some pencils and a scabbard with one of the most beautifully forged daggers she had ever seen. When she removed the scabbard the inscription said: “ Made in Earth Kingdom”. It didn’t surprise her, throughout their travels there she had come across many talented smidges and seen their work. But when she turned to the other side she felt how the words just stuck in her throat.   The words formed a sentence, and that sentence shined up on her face.“Never give up without a fight…”
She felt how her breath just stopped and how she almost dropped the knife. She couldn’t find the words to explain why, but she just knew that this knife was made for him, or at least it resembled what he stood for. She swallowed as she slide it back in and placed it beside her. She reached for one of the books and opened it. The first thing she was greeted by was another face. It was a face of a baby with a big grin on her face. She had black hair and sharp but playful eyes. There was something about the face that was familiar, and whatever it was it gave Katara goosebumps. She quickly switched page and was greeted with more artwork and faces. Page after page she scanned after valuable information. One of the pages caught her attention and she stopped to study it. It was a picture of two young boys – one of whom looked like he was around five years older – standing in what looked like a garden with a pond and a large tree. The younger one had two swords in his hands and looked hopefully at the older one, perhaps for encouragement. The older one stood with his arms crossed with a proud smile on his face. There was something about the picture that left Katara heartbroken, she didn’t know why. She looked down on the right corner of the page and saw a date written there, which she couldn’t believe. If the date was true, this picture was drawn yesterday, but that could only mean…

“Zuko had drawn this…”

His name left a bitter taste on her tongue. She was about to put down the book along with the other things and reach for the bag to empty it. But before she could a strong voice stopped her.

“What are you doing here?”

She quickly turned around and saw Zuko, now with a shirt on and with a towel around his neck. Surprise was written all over his face as he could only stare at the waterbender and the mess she had caused around her. He saw how Katara abruptly stood up and tried to form any kind of word that would explain her intrusion, but she was left speechless. She could only stare back at him as his eyes scanned his belongings that now were lying scattered over the floor. His eyes caught the book with the painting of the two boys that Katara was still holding in her left hand.  His eyes soften as he recognized the picture he had drawn yesterday.

“ You were looking through my stuff.”

It was more of statement then a question. Zuko slowly walked up next to her, he put down the towel on the bed and gently took the book from her grasp. Katara eyes followed his as they both looked at the drawing together. Katara really wanted to ask him about it, and probably a thousand more questions, but quickly stopped herself. It was something way to personal, and Zuko would never want to talk about something so….
“This is me and my older cousin, Lu Ten.” Zuko said sincerely with a bit of longing and sadness in his voice.
Katara looked at him both in surprise and wonder. He had just explained a piece of himself to her, without her even asking for it. She returned her gaze to the drawing, she looked at the older boy. Why was Zuko’s voice filled with grief when he mentioned him? But now she could understand that the boy with the twin swords was Zuko. He looked so happy in the picture, so full of joy.
“I didn’t know you could draw.”
“I never intended to, but my mother used to so….”he never finished that sentence. Katara studied his face trying to see if there was any chance of him lying. But even she could tell the honesty in those eyes. She took a step away from Zuko, feeling vulnerable now that it was obvious to him what she had sought for. She should have thought better! Of course he wouldn’t hide anything in his bag, it would be too easy to find. And even Zuko wasn’t that dumb.
Stupid, stupid, stupid! 
Desperately she tried to come up with anything to distract the prince.

“Your lesson with Aang is not usually this short.” She inwardly sighed with relief for her quick thinking.
“Well...he has almost completely mastered the basics, so I thought it would be good for him to rest before we start with the more complicated ones tomorrow.”
That was the truth, but it wasn’t entirely the whole of it. In fact, Zuko felt more tired than usual and a little headache was starting to form inside his skull. But it was nothing he couldn’t handle, surely he hadn’t been sleeping much since his trip with Aang – they had been awake the entire night and he always woke with the sun the next day. It was probably a result of his lack of sleep. So that’s why he ended the lesson earlier than usual so he could fully rest up, but he didn’t want Katara to know that. She would probably throw a dirty comment about him being weak or not doing his job as the avatar’s teacher.

Katara nodded at his explanation and again silence fell upon them. She tried again to come up with some kind of distraction but then felt how pointless it was. She gathered all the little courage she had left of and decided to just go with it.
“Zuko, I’m sorry that – “
“I won’t tell anybody…”
She looked up with surprise and met his gaze.
“…but I would rather not that you come in here again without my permission .”
Katara could see how serious he was about this and she nodded understandingly. If she had found him going through her stuff….not even the gods could tell what kind of power she would have unleashed on him, but Zuko had instead told her about his past and let her off with only a little warning. Gratitude and relief flooded inside her as she gave him a little smile. He smiled back and then kneeled down to pick up his things. Katara did the same and a comfortable silence was exchanged between the two. Zuko couldn’t believe that he just right now had had a descent conversation with her, any less that she would help him. Katara couldn’t believe that she had not lashed out at him yet or at least showed a bit disapproval. But she did feel a bit guilty. When she had picked up her side she handed them over to Zuko as he packed them back in the bag with the rest. When every belonging were back in its originally place did the both benders stand up. Katara started walking towards the door and grabbed the doorknob, but not before she turned around to face him. She noticed how calm he was as he looked at her. She wasn’t used to it, but she realized that she preferred it more than is usual angry and frustrated self. But even so, she still didn’t trust him. The hurt and rage returned as she remembered what he did back then in the crystal catacombs, which side he had actually chosen.  

“This doesn’t change anything.” she said as she glared at him before slamming the door after her. But Zuko could only smile at her. Instead of being upset about her words he went to the bed and laid down on it. He could still hear their words, still feel the comfortable feeling of them being close.  And he could still see the blush on her cheeks when she had left.
As his body gave into his tiredness his mind traveled back to when he and his uncle had been searching for the avatar here. He could still feel the touch of his uncle’s hand on his shoulder and his words filled with wisdom: “Destiny is a funny thing. You never know how things are going to work out. But if you keep an open mind and an open heart, I promise you will find your own destiny someday.”
Perhaps his uncle was right? Perhaps today hadn’t just been a coincidence but merely a twist of fate. Perhaps things were going to get better for him from now on.