Title: Red and Blue: A Different Beginning
Author: SCWLC
Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own nuthin'.
Rating: PG for now, I suspect it will go up later but . . . well . . .
Summary: A slightly different start, a little bit of self-deception - they can go a long way together.
Notes: Okay, so this is like the series rewrite from Crazy Zutara 'Shipper Land. I'm not even going to try to figure out all the whys. This is going to be like the ultimate, "Just go with it, okay?" sort of fic. I don't even know. I was in the middle of some abortive fic that I don't know what I'm doing with it, when this idea came to me in a flash of hoppy fur and ears. Roughly . . . what if Zuko wasn't in the South Pole when Aang woke up, and somehow managed to run into Katara a lot without ever realising she was the Avatar's friend, and without Katara ever knowing he was that firebender that was chasing them. Or something like that.
Just . . . don't expect rational thought on this one.
The First Meeting
For the first time, Zuko had real rumours to follow about the Avatar. For three years, all he'd had was legends and stories passed from parent to child over the past hundred years. His ship had landed on Kyoshi for reprovisioning, and the next thing he knew, he was hearing a hundred rumours about the Avatar being somewhere on the island.
He followed the rumours and found himself in the village where the Avatar Kyoshi's temple was. Zuko was wandering through the market, having disguised himself as Earth Kingdom so as to be able to sneak up on the Avatar, should the man truly be there. Unfortunately, he was distracted from his search by a flash of blue. Amidst the greens and browns of the people, the girl in blue stood out like a jewel in mud.
She was a jewel. A girl from the Water Tribes, to judge by her exotic dark skin and wavy brown hair, was shopping in the market, and Zuko found himself drawn to her. Somehow he wound up standing next to her. So close, in fact, that when she turned, the basket on her arm bumped into him, sending her packages flying.
"I'm sorry," they said in unison.
Zuko hastily joined her in gathering up her purchases. "No, it was my fault," he said. "I was standing too close."
"I should have been watching where I was going," she told him, blushing prettily.
He knew he should get back to hunting the Avatar, but it had been a very long time since he'd last been around anyone his own age, let alone a pretty girl, and Zuko just couldn't bring himself to let the moment end quite yet. In his panicked attempt to think of something to say, he blurted out, "You're just really pretty."
She whipped around, blue eyes wide, and said, "What?"
"I . . . Forget I said anything," Zuko said, feeling extremely mortified. What was he doing? She was some Water Tribe peasant, not even worth the time of the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation.
Then she said, "I . . . I'm . . . pretty?" She smiled at him, and he forgot all about his hideous embarrassment. "Thank you. No one's ever said that before, except my Dad," she told him self-deprecatingly. "I'm Katara."
Another moment of panic. He couldn't tell her who he really was . . . "Lee," he said, grasping the first name that came to mind. "My name is Lee." He suddenly realised he was still holding the last of her packages and handed it to her. Suddenly he realised a topic he could use to extend the conversation a little. "So, what are you doing here, on Kyoshi?"
"I-"
"Katara!" came a voice from somewhere in the crowd.
She looked disappointed, and Zuko felt vaguely cheered by that. "Oh! I have to go. Sorry, and thank you!" she said as she whipped off. Before he could give chase, he spotted one of his soldiers, also dressed in Earth clothing, waving to him. Apparently the man had found something interesting.
The Second Meeting
Katara was greatly relieved by their success at freeing the earthbenders kept captive by the Fire Nation. She'd felt truly awful when Haru had been arrested because of her, and so it made her feel good that they'd set that wrong to rights. Better still, they'd freed the whole prison, so she was in great spirits as she went shopping.
She was wandering through the market, when she was startled by a familiar face. It was that boy who'd said she was pretty on Kyoshi. He'd seemed completely tongue-tied, but he was fairly handsome, even with that scar on his face, and he'd looked very disappointed when she'd had to leave with Sokka. It was a split second decision, since he hadn't seen her, but handsome boys who thought she was pretty were pretty thin on the ground back home, and things weren't much better, now that she was travelling with Aang. "Lee!"
He didn't respond, but Katara assumed he hadn't heard her, and hurried up to him, tapping him on the shoulder, repeating his name. He turned, looking a little annoyed, saying, "I don't know who – Katara!" he responded. The annoyance seemed to fade from his face, and he asked, "What are you doing here?"
She smiled. "Shopping. We're just stopping on our way," she explained.
"Same here," he told her. "I'm just passing through on – with my uncle." He'd seemed about to say something else, then thought better of it. "I'm glad to see you again," he told her. "I . . . uh . . ." He looked adorably confused.
Being a risk-taker, Katara suggested, "I don't have to find my brother for a while yet. Would you like to have some tea?" She pointed at the tea shop across the street. "It'll be nice to talk to someone who's not obsessed with furry animals."
He grinned at her, and made an incredibly elaborate and elegant bow, and said, "Oh, after you, m'lady."
Katara found herself blushing. For just a moment, she felt like a princess, and it was a really nice feeling. Soon they were settled in the tea shop, talking about this and that. She told him all about her Gran and her dad, and he talked about his uncle. She sensed there was a story behind why he didn't want to talk about his parents, but she wasn't talking about her mother, so fair was fair.
The conversation ranged from scrolls they'd read, it turned out they had both read as many of the Tales of Ming Tsu as they could get their hands on, and he was particularly jealous of the antique scroll of her gran's that she'd read. So they chatted about the stories of adventure, who their favourite characters were and agreed that Ming Tsu and Lao Tien should have gotten on with things and gotten married in the third scroll instead of waffling about their feelings.
They also agreed the pair shouldn't have visited the seer, it was completely obvious the visions were fakes, and had a delightful time debating the quality of the fight scenes. It was as he gestured expansively, illustrating some point about the minutiae of a swordfight that she saw a familiar flash of blue at his wrist. Before she even though, Katara had grabbed his hand, bringing it toward her. "What?" he asked, looking quite bewildered.
"My necklace!" she exclaimed. "This is my necklace! Where did you get it?"
He blinked for a moment, then said, "I found it. On the . . . on the Fire Nation prison ship. The one the earthbenders escaped from." He looked a little angry as he said it.
"Oh," Katara said. "I . . . I just noticed I'd lost it after we left, and-"
"You were on that ship?" he demanded. "What were you doing there?"
"I . . . the soldiers mistook me for an earthbender be-"
She didn't have a chance to finish her sentence as he was on his feet, next to her chair and started checking her over, clearly looking for injuries. "Are you okay?" he demanded.
"I'm fine," she told him soothingly. "We all managed to get away fine."
He shook his head angrily. "It's one thing to take potential combatants and put them somewhere they won't cause trouble, but to take a girl . . ." he trailed off, looking extremely irate.
"It's wrong no matter what," she snapped. "None of them were doing anything to the Fire Nation, they just took them away from their families because they might do something. It's cruel and horrible."
He flushed and looked away, looking ashamed. "I'm sorry," he muttered.
"I'm sorry too," she said. "I know what you meant and I shouldn't have snapped."
They both smiled tentatively and talked a while longer, but the moment had been lost, and they both had places to be anyhow. "I have to go find my uncle," he told her after insisting on paying for both their tea and snacks. "Maybe . . . maybe I'll see you around?" he said, hopefully.
Katara smiled, feeling just as hopeful. "Well, it wasn't all that likely we'd run into each other here, so maybe we will." Feeling very bold, she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek before saying goodbye.
He turned bright red, but as she turned to leave, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back into his arms. "Lee? What are-"
"Since I don't know if I'll ever get this chance again," he interrupted her. Before she could ask what that meant, he kissed her. On the lips. Like in a romance scroll or something. When they finally broke apart, he said, "Okay. Now I really hope I'll see you again."
She was only able to stammer out an appropriate farewell and watched her handsome friend get lost in the crowd.
The Third Meeting
Zuko was running the encounters with the Avatar over and over in his head as he paced around the little town they'd chugged to after all the damage Zhao's blockade had given him. He was again dressed in Earth clothes, having decided after the first meeting with Katara that he liked the relative anonymity the clothes gave him, rather than creating a trail of rumours about Fire Nation for Zhao to follow.
It meant he was able to wander the town aimlessly as he tried to figure out who the third member of the Avatar's little party was. Whoever they were, they were also Water Tribe, like the boy, but they'd been kept just out of his sightline the whole time, only brief flashes of blue letting him note there was someone there at all. For a moment, he considered Katara. Everywhere the Avatar had been, there she was.
No. That was ridiculous, he told himself. It was just coincidence.
Just as it was coincidence that, when he looked up, there she was in the market. "Katara!" He eagerly raced up to her. She was different from the girls he'd known before he was banished. She was fun and funny and actually seemed interested in what he had to say. She turned and smiled when she saw who it was.
"Lee!" Somehow they wound up hugging and Zuko decided he quite liked it as a greeting for her. "What are you doing here? Your uncle's business brought you here?"
It was a good excuse. "Yeah," he told her. "Our ship took some damage so we're here for repairs and reprovisioning."
"We just wound up having to take a detour," she told him. Then she smiled and said, "You know, I've been out all morning. Maybe we should go for some lunch?"
They ambled comfortably around until they found somewhere to eat. They shared tales of travel misadventures and ate off each other's plates. "Hey! Eat your own noodles," he said, lightly slapping at her hand with his chopsticks.
"But yours look so much tastier," she complained, parrying with her own chopsticks and making a run at his noodles again. Soon they were giggling like children as they sparred over the table with the utensils. He took his revenge for the theft of his noodles by taking part of her egg pie, she took some of his chicken pig, he stole some of her mango – it was a lot of fun.
When they'd finished they walked the market, holding hands and looking at the wares. Eventually she looked at the sun's position and said regretfully, "Oh. I didn't notice how late it was. I have to go."
He felt a little downcast. It had been a wonderful afternoon. He hadn't even thought about the Avatar once. "Oh. So . . . until next time then?" he asked her, hopefully. They'd run into each other often enough now that it was worth hoping for.
"You can count on it. In fact," she told him with a grin, "I think I owe you something from the last time we met."
"What's that?"
She kissed him.
Zuko happily let his eyes slide closed and wrapped his arms around her waist. This was perfection. They broke apart, breathing hard, and she said, "Until next time."
He happily wandered back to the ship and flopped down onto his bed, not thinking about the Avatar, but what he was going to do the next time he ran into Katara.
The Fourth Meeting
Katara was grousing, down by the water, irritated with herself for being so incompetent, irritated with Aang for being so talented, irritated with Sokka for being right about the scroll, irritated with the pirates for dropping this temptation in her path and just plain irritated with everything in the whole world.
"Stupid . . . water . . . work with me," she groused at it as she tried, again, to make a water whip.
A familiar voice spoke up behind her. "I thought I'd find you here."
She shrieked in surprise before whipping around. "Lee? What are you doing sneaking up on me like that?" Then she frowned. "And how did you know I was here?"
He was leaning against a tree looking annoyingly handsome. "Uncle dragged me shopping, and I heard one of the vendors say something about a water tribe girl stealing a scroll. I had a hunch it was you." He pushed away from the tree and ambled towards her. "You're a waterbender?"
She sighed and just plopped onto the ground, feeling exhausted. "Not a very good one. There weren't any other benders at home to teach me. So that's why we're going north. To learn waterbending."
Lee had joined her on the riverbank, picking up the scroll and looking over the movements on it. "So you stole the scroll, hoping to be able to learn something?"
"Yes," she told him. "I feel terrible, even if it was from pirates, but I just . . . I want to learn so badly."
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and squeezed briefly. "Can I make a suggestion?" he said. "Not that I know anything about waterbending, of course."
"What?" she asked, a little sourly.
Lee pulled away from her, and Katara instantly regretted her attitude. She'd liked his arm on her shoulders, and she'd liked leaning into his nice, warm body. "I was thinking you should work on the movements until you know them. So that when you actually try bending, you don't have to think about that, and how you're moving, but just the bending."
"I . . ." she trailed off, thoughtfully. "That makes sense. Thanks Lee!" She bounded to her feet. "Just let me see if I can get this one move. Okay?"
He heaved a deep sigh. "Okay. I came here to spend time with you, though. Not to sit here alone, lonely, bereft . . ." he trailed off, looking at her hopefully.
For the first time that day, Katara felt no longer annoyed. "Just a bit of practice. I promise," she told him. Then she sternly told herself that she could practice when he wasn't there, but she couldn't spend time with him if she was practicing.
Lee helped her anyhow. He sat there, the scroll open on his knees, letting her know if she needed to shift her stance a little or lift an arm higher or lower. It seemed like no time at all before she instinctively reached out, collecting the water from the river and sending it out in a perfect thin stream to snap a branch off a tree. She let go of her control and squealed happily, throwing herself into his arms. "Thank you!"
"You're very welcome," he told her. "Actually, that was more fun than I thought it would be."
She pulled back and looked him in the eye, asking, "What do you mean?"
A jokingly over the top lascivious smile followed. "I got to watch you bend," he told her, wagging his eyebrows.
Katara rolled her eyes and smacked him lightly on the chest in reproof. "Boys," she snorted.
"And after all my help, you wound me," he joked.
Then they sat down and watched the moonlight on the riverface, chatting about things. The long day caught up with Katara however, and she found herself drifting. Half-aware, she resettled herself against her comfortable, warm, nicely contoured pillow. She woke up just before sunrise to the feel of Lee kissing her.
Katara blinked and realised she'd fallen asleep practically draped over Lee. He had just sat there, letting her sleep on him all night. She bolted up, blushing in her embarrassment. "I'm so sorry," she squeaked.
He stretched, and told her, "It's fine." He gave her that same stupid, overdone, goofy smirk from before and said, "Now I can tell people you slept with me."
Rolling her eyes, Katara said, "Do you think about anything else?"
"What? You're really pretty and I like you," he protested.
That made her blush again, this time with pleasure at the compliment. "Thanks, Lee. I've got to get back to the others." Then she scrambled off. It was only when she was back with Aang and Sokka that she realised she hadn't made any plans to meet up with him again later.
The Fifth Meeting
The storm had been terrible, and Zuko was in pieces trying to repress the shakes that were working their way out from somewhere behind his breastbone. They landed the ship and he hastily disembarked, just grabbing the bag of his Earth clothes and getting off the ship before he humiliated himself in front of the men and his uncle.
He changed, shoving his regular clothes into the bag and searching for somewhere to get away. That was when Fortune shone down on him. As he hurried down the forest path in search of certain privacy, he slammed into a small figure in blue, sending them both to the ground. "Watch-" he started to snap. "Katara?" he gasped.
"Lee," she said. Somehow she looked like he felt. "Oh, Lee!" she cried and threw herself at him. Instinctively Zuko wrapped his arms around her, breathing in the now-familiar scent of her hair. She was sobbing into his chest, telling him about some boy named Jet who'd tried to kill a village full of Fire Nation citizens just because they were there, and nearly losing her brother to the storm.
"Shh. It's okay," he murmured into her hair. Still, he felt his own shakes and sobs coming out, and slowly he went from being the comforter, to the comforted. "I . . . the helmsman . . . he nearly died because I was so stupid. Why didn't I listen to Uncle?"
"But he didn't die, and everyone's okay, right?" she murmured, petting him gently. From anyone else, Zuko would have yanked the hand away in annoyance at the implicit condescension. But this was Katara. He just burrowed into her more.
"I just . . . I was so scared, Katara." She soothed away the last of his shakes and finally he was able to sit up properly. "We're a pair, aren't we?"
She smiled back at him. "I'm starting to think this is Fate," she said. "We keep running into each other."
"I think we need to at least try to make plans to meet next time," Zuko told her. "I'm really tired of leaving and thinking this is the last time." Suddenly, sitting next to her wasn't enough, and Zuko reach out, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her against him and onto his lap as he settled his back against a tree trunk. She wriggled in his grasp, making him tighten his arms to keep her from leaving, but she just resettled herself more comfortably, putting her head in just the right spot on his chest for him to rest his chin on her head.
"Well," she said, "Do you know where you're going next? I'll see if our routes are anywhere close to the same."
"We're heading north," Zuko told her. "Like you."
Like the Avatar.
He shook that thought away. She wasn't with the Avatar, because that would make her an enemy. And she wasn't his enemy, so she couldn't be with the Avatar. It was that simple.
Eventually they settled on a meeting place and happily curled up together. Zuko talked about his uncle's stupid missing Pai Sho tile and the stupid shopping trip he'd had to go on where his uncle had walked away with a pile of junk and no tile. Katara told him about her brother's meat obsession. "It's like I'm travelling with one person who eats only meat and another who eats only vegetables. I have to do all the cooking and it's driving me nuts," she complained.
"Maybe you should make one really big bowl of stew and tell them they should just pick through it themselves."
She giggled. "That makes more sense than not. But I think my brother would complain that I was trying to cheat him out of his share of food."
They talked a while longer, but this time it was Zuko who had to regretfully say, "It's getting late, and I need to get back to the ship. Uncle will worry."
"I should probably go too," she said, and stood, stretching. Zuko watched her avidly out of the corner of his eye as he did so as well. Suddenly he noticed something.
"Are you watching me stretch?" he asked, a little teasingly.
Katara blushed. "I . . . so what if I am? You're watching me stretch," she said defensively.
"Watch all you want," Zuko said, and tried to lean seductively against the tree and stretch at the same time. It didn't work and he fell over. That made her burst into giggles. When he glared at her, she tried to suppress them, but failed.
"I'm sorry," she said. "You just . . . and then you fell." Her hand was over her mouth, and Zuko felt a little less annoyed, just because she was at least trying not to laugh.
"Hmph," he grumbled. Nonetheless, he couldn't stay mad at her. She just looked so pretty and appealing. "I demand recompense for the humiliation," he told her, smirking a little.
"Meaning what?" she asked.
"Meaning this," Zuko told her and did like they did in the romance scrolls, pulling her dramatically against him, kissing her hard and trying to lean her over backwards, which was a lot harder than it sounded.
She squirmed away from him and Zuko could feel himself pouting. "It sounds better in the scrolls."
"You are just too cute," she said, and kissed him again. This time, without his attempts at romance, it was a lot better.
They said goodbye, and Zuko went back to his ship in far better spirits, changing into his regular clothes and planning out how to hide a calendar counting the hours until he saw her again, from his uncle's keen eyes.
The Sixth Meeting
Katara was still sick, but she'd promised Lee she'd meet him in town, and she didn't want to let him think she'd stood him up, and she also didn't want to deal with what Aang and Sokka would do if they found out she had a sort-of boyfriend.
So she crawled out of bed while Aang was out and Sokka was dozing, left them a note saying she wanted some space from stupid boys and slowly made her way to the inn she was supposed to meet Lee at. It took her a very long time to get there, and she was pretty sure she was late. When she got in, she spotted him sitting at a table, looking impatient, and staggered over, flopping into a chair and dropping her head to the table with a thud.
"You're late," he said, ungraciously. When she peeled her head back up off the table to fix him with what passed for a glare in her current condition, his eyes widened. "You look awful. Are you okay?" he asked. He placed a hand over hers, then tightened it. "Your hand is ice cold."
"I'm sick, okay?" she groused. Letting her head fall back into her arms, she told him, "My brother got sick, then I caught it, then our friend insisted that we had to suck on these hibernating frogs to get better, and I didn't want you to think I'd stood you up, okay?" To her horror, she felt tears welling up.
Lee squeezed her hand comfortingly for a moment, then said, suddenly. "Just a sec, I'll be right back, I promise." His nice warm hand vanished, and Katara couldn't even bring herself to pick her head up to see what he was doing. A moment later, however, he was back. "Hang on," was the only warning she had before he'd slipped one arm under her knees and the other behind her back, picking her up easily.
"Wha-?" Her head came up and she looked around as she suddenly felt weightless, carried in very strong arms. "Where are you taking me?"
"I'm renting a room for the afternoon, and you're going to stay in bed," he told her. "I've ordered some chicken lizard soup for you."
Katara sniffled a little, and it wasn't all due to her illness, either. He was just so nice. "Thank you," she told him, and wrapped her arms around his neck and pressing a kiss to his shoulder, which was the only part of him she could kiss right then.
He carried her into a nice little private room, and put her on the bed. Then he insisted on taking her shoes off for her, and tucked her in. "Better?" he asked. "I don't get sick a lot, but I remember my mother doing this when I was little."
"Much better," she told him. Appa was soft and warm, but he smelled like the bison he was. Sokka snored and Aang tried to help, but he was terrible at being restful. The only thing that might make it better was, "Lee?"
"Yeah?" he said, from where he'd poked his head out the door to collect the soup from the innkeeper.
"Would you . . . nevermind," she said as he handed her the soup. "Thanks."
"Um . . . okay," he said, perching next to her on the bed. "You're welcome."
Having his extremely warm body so close and yet so far was maddening, so Katara sipped at her soup a few times, then wriggled over to Lee and curled up against him anyhow. It was awkward, but he was so nice and warm.
"Katara?"
"Hmm?" She took another sip.
"Aren't you uncomfortable?" he asked.
"You're all warm," Katara told him, and briefly burrowed her cold nose into his shoulder to warm it up. He gave a put-upon sigh, and took her soup away for a moment, then rearranged them both so that he was sitting behind her, leaning against the pillows, while she was curled up against his chest with his arms around her and the covers over them both.
"Better?" he asked, handing her back the soup.
"I think I love you," she told him jokingly, then froze. They were in a relationship, really. It was kind of off and on, and they never knew when they'd meet up next, but . . . and it was too soon to say it, and what if he took it wrong and . . . "I . . . uh . . . I mean, that's really nice," Katara stuttered out.
"Thanks," he said hoarsely. Somehow, she knew it wasn't just for the compliment.
Trying to ease the awkwardness a little, Katara sat up and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "I'd kiss you properly, but I don't want to get you sick with this," she told him.
That afternoon they didn't talk, she just dozed in Lee's arms, warm, comfortable and safe. He didn't ask anything of her, just held her and occasionally pressed his lips to the crown of her head.
All good things come to an end, and Lee gently prodded her awake. "Sorry, Katara," he told her. "But I have to go, and I bet you do too."
Yawning, she noted that the sun was indeed, getting low. "You're right." She sat up regretfully. "Some date this was."
He quirked a small grin at her. "I dunno. It wasn't so bad. You slept with me again, after all."
Katara rolled her eyes, but she felt a million times better than she had that morning, thanks to Lee, so she didn't say anything to that. "We'll be heading up close to the Northwestern peninsula," she told him. "Will you be anywhere near there?"
He frowned, and said, "I think, maybe." He named a town there. "You want to try to meet there in two weeks?"
Katara half closed her eyes, recalling the map in her head. "I think I can manage that."
He smiled. "Good."
"Hopefully I'll be better soon so I can give you a proper thank-you for this," Katara gestured around the room.
"It was nothing," he protested.
"Renting me a room at an inn for a day just so I can have a bed to rest in isn't nothing," she told him tartly. "And I won't let you downplay that this must have cost you a lot of gold to be done so fast."
He looked flummoxed at that, and Katara briefly wondered how much money he actually had available. He and his uncle were travelling an awful lot with their ship, which clearly had a crew. Maybe they were wealthy merchants. It would explain a lot.
They said goodbye and Katara trudged back, and told her brother and Aang that her rapid recovery could be attributed to not being around stupid boys all day. Which was kind of true.
The Seventh Meeting
Zuko was in a bad mood about a dozen times over. Everything had been going wrong lately. He was a dozen steps behind the Avatar, some crazy bounty hunter had run all over their ship, not to mention he hadn't even been able to use her services to track the Avatar because he didn't have anything belonging to the kid or his two Water Tribe friends. He also still had no idea who the second Water Tribe peasant was, if it even was a Water Tribe peasant or just someone who liked blue a lot.
Thinking of blue didn't help, because he hadn't seen Katara in what felt like forever, and his uncle had found the poetry he'd written about her and teased him about it mercilessly. Moments like that, he could see the family resemblance between his uncle and Azula. The man knew exactly where his weak points were and went for them like an arrow loosed by a Yu Yan archer. Not that it was in any sort of bad intent, but still, it was aggravating.
To top it all off, he'd been cut while his servants shaved his head – the sign of his shame was bad enough, the fact that he now had a big slice there was just honey glaze on pastry – then he'd managed to walk into a flame fist he should have known was there while training, and he was now sporting a burn on the palm of the hand he'd had to block with.
Now he was pacing around the small town they'd agreed to meet in, trying not to be annoyed, since she wasn't late yet, but still annoyed because he wanted to see her now.
Finally she appeared, and something inside him relaxed when he saw her smiling face emerge from the people wandering around the village square doing whatever peasants did when they milled in village squares. Within moments, however, she was frowning, and by the time she got there, his attempts to hug her were ignored by her pulling his head down to look at the bandaged spot on his head. "What happened?" she demanded.
"Nothing," Zuko groused. "I've been missing you for weeks and all you can do is bug me about the stupid cut?"
"That's . . . I . . . oh Lee," she kissed his cheek and squeezed him far too briefly. "Come on. Let's find somewhere private. I have something to show you I think you'll like."
Nothing loathe to be alone with her, Zuko let her pull him after her, ignoring the pain her hand on his still-healing burn sparked. She noticed the bandages however, and said, "Why didn't you say something?" as she led him into a small copse with a stream running past it.
"It's just a little burn," he said defensively.
She sat him down beside the stream and said, "I found out something I could do the other day, so just . . . stay still and let me help."
Sighing, Zuko slumped down, then stared in surprise as she dipped a hand into the stream, and brought it out surrounded by glowing stream water. "What are you doing?" he asked, a little warily, as she took his bandaged hand in her own.
"Healing you," she replied absently. Before he could reply to that incredible statement, she'd pressed the glowing hand to his burn. It felt pleasantly cool, then a little tingly, then all the sense of sensitivity and the slight dull pain that had remained in his hand just went away.
He stared, then flexed his hand carefully. "Amazing," he said.
"Shush and let me do your head," she told him.
"Stop being bossy," Zuko complained, even as he let her yank his head around and run her glowing hand all over the cut.
She ignored him, turning his head this way and that as she made sure to reach every part of the cut. "There. Better." She tossed the last of her healing water back into the stream and smiled proudly at him.
"That is amazing," Zuko said, sincerely. He'd never even heard of anyone able to do such miraculous healing outside of tales of magic like the ones told to children. He reached into his pocket and felt the poem he'd brought for her. It was a different one from the one his uncle had found, mainly because his uncle had made some very salient points about his choices and the degree of romance in some of the things he had compared Katara to.
Still, now that he was there, and she'd gifted him with this incredible healing, the poem suddenly felt completely inadequate. "What's in your pocket?" she asked.
"I . . . um . . . nothing," Zuko said hastily. "It's . . . nothing."
"Oh," she said, looking a little disappointed.
Zuko thought of his first poem.
You burn so brightly
Your spirit – like an oil fire on the water
All four elements embodied by you
Eyes like water, skin like earth, movement like air, spirit of fire
His uncle had rightly pointed out that most girls wouldn't be too impressed by being compared to an oil slick. Even one that was on fire. Especially one that was on fire. Being told her skin was earthy might not go over well either. Not to mention that she was Water Tribe. She might take offense to being told she had a spirit of fire.
As they sat talking, he couldn't keep himself from fingering the parchment. He had to think of something to give her. Something equal to her healing his cut and the burn on his hand. Something that wouldn't make him seem like an idiot who couldn't string three words together.
When they kissed goodbye, Zuko put everything he had into the kiss, and promised himself that at their next meeting, he'd have a gift worthy of her. Something practical but beautiful, romantic and very . . . Katara. He'd have to think very hard about it.
He panicked when he got to the ship, because the parchment he'd finally stopped fingering was no longer in his pocket. He calmed himself because there was no reason she should have found it. It could have fallen out anywhere.
Zuko still had a sinking feeling she'd read it.
The Eighth Meeting
Katara was waiting for Lee at the latest village they'd agreed to meet in after they'd discovered their paths were mostly the same. She'd considered, briefly, that he might have something to do with this Prince Zuko she'd heard from Sokka and Aang was following them. Lee couldn't be Zuko, however, since Sokka had told her that Zuko was ugly with a scar on his face, always dressed in armour, arrogant and just plain mean.
Well, Lee had a scar on his face, but he was very handsome, very sweet, seemed almost embarrassed a lot of the time, and dressed in Earth clothes. He couldn't be Zuko. He was just a merchant on a particular trade path.
Meanwhile, she was very eager to see him. The two poems he'd left behind at the copse for her after he'd left were so sweet. They were awkward, true. But they were very romantic, and very . . . Lee. She liked them both, but the first one, with all the weird comparisons was more like him. Very earnest and she could almost see him frowning in concentration as he tried to come up with flattering things to say. The second was more normal, and she suspected he'd had help with it. That was actually the problem. It didn't sound so much like him.
Eyes like the bluest ocean depths
Cheeks blooming like pink roses
A spirit like the eye of the storm
Powerful but calm at the centre
Finally, finally, finally he showed up. It was the last time they were going to be able to see each other, quite possibly, and Katara was eager to make the most of it, and find out if there was any way to get back in contact with him once they returned from the Northern Tribe.
He started to greet her, but by then he was within arm's reach. "Hi Katar- Mmmph!"
She kissed him. When she pulled away, she said, "Thank you for the poems! They're so sweet!"
"Oh, I . . . poems!" He looked a little sick. "Did . . . you . . . oh no."
"Didn't you mean for me to read them?"
"Not the one with the . . . with the oil slick," he moaned, looking humiliated.
Katara sighed. "I liked that one. It's like you."
"What, idiotic and fumbling about girls?" he pouted. It was adorable.
"No. Sweet and sincere." She nodded decisively. "Also, my brother's worse than you at that kind of thing, so I'm used to figuring out what things are supposed to mean, not what they actually say."
He sighed. "You got there that day and you healed me. After that I didn't want to give you the poems, I wanted to give you something better."
Katara shot him an exasperated look. He was a great boyfriend, but the way he seemed to think his poems were inadequate was a little annoying. "Lee, they're wonderful. You're saying such wonderful things about me and – did you get me a present?" she said abruptly as he held out something in lovely tooled leather to her.
"Yes," he said. "I wanted a good present for you. Something useful."
"I like your poems," Katara told him stubbornly. She wasn't going to let him badmouth himself. Still . . . presents. She took it and unrolled the thing.
Lee said, anxiously, "It's a waterskin," as though he was worried she might not be able to tell. "It's a waterskin designed for a waterbending warrior," he explained. "I found it in a stall at the market, and that's what Uncle said it is. He always knows those kinds of things."
Katara was only half listening as she turned it over and over, seeing the way it was put together, how it was designed to fill particularly quickly, the way it could be cleaned so easily, the copper being used for sealing and the way it could either let a lot of water out at once, or a small stream. At the same time, it could hold a lot of water without getting into the way, and be handled one-handed if necessary. It was definitely a bender's waterskin.
"Thank you!" she squealed, and threw herself at him. "This is the best present anyone's ever given me!" There was only one good way to thank him, so she did it.
They didn't stop kissing until the sun had moved a great deal to the west in the sky. They also made tentative plans to leave letters for each other at a particular inn once Katara had left the Northern Water Tribe.
One last kiss and she left to rejoin her brother and Aang. She was determined, however, she wasn't going to lose Lee. She would find him again. She had to give him as good a present as the waterskin, and she'd really miss kissing him.
The Ninth Meeting
Zuko crept into the Oasis, spotted the Avatar and the two with him. The one, a girl with white hair, asked the other if he or she needed help guarding the Avatar. Zuko didn't wait for a response or even a clear view. He just blasted the ice wall beside the other person, half-hidden from his view. They were immediately buried in ice, so Zuko grabbed the Avatar and took off before they could wake up.
Katara didn't even see anything coming. One moment she was guarding Aang, the next, an avalanche was landing on her head. Everything went black.
The Tenth Meeting
Katara dimly spotted the man the others insisted was Zuko. With all the blowing snow and his white clothing she couldn't see a thing clearly. Rather than wait for him to approach, she just hit him hard and fast, burying the firebender in snow. She didn't look at him for the whole trip back, absorbed as she was by checking that Aang hadn't been hurt. She dismounted Appa without a second glance as they hurried back to the Spirit Oasis.
Zuko just barely spotted the Avatar's animal and friends through the snow. Then one of them raised his arms, and Zuko was quickly knocked out by a few sharp hits with the ice and snow. He woke up much later, alone in the city and decided to cut his losses, leave, and try for the Avatar again later.
The Eleventh Meeting
Zuko had borrowed a soldier's armour on his way through the city, knowing he didn't look remotely like Water Tribe, and preferring to have the protection from attack over trusting his ability to camouflage himself.
He was racing along, when he saw something that made him stop dead. It was Katara, bending ice away from the site of a collapse building. When he concentrated, Zuko realised he could hear calls for help from under the rubble. Katara looked frantic, and between the fact that there were clearly children under there, and the fact that Katara needed help, Zuko's decision was made.
A moment later he was next to her. "Lee!" she cried, startled, when suddenly a gout of fire was bent to help clear the snow and ice away. "You're here? You're a firebender?"
He concentrated on helping. "I . . ." There wasn't anything he could say.
"Have you been with Zhao?" she demanded.
What could he say? That he was the prince chasing the Avatar? She'd call people down on him, and Zuko didn't want to face off with the bending friend of the Avatar's that he'd seen through the snow on the tundra. "Yes." It was true enough.
She trusted him so much she just filled in the blanks for him. "You're here because you have to be, aren't you?" she asked. "You're just . . . following orders, right?"
"Sometimes you have to do things you don't like," Zuko said, answering her obliquely to the point of not at all. Hoping she'd pick up the implication he wanted.
They worked in silence together for a bit, until they'd clear the worst away and the people were no longer in danger. "You're going to have to make a choice," she said to him suddenly. "You know what the Fire Nation is doing to people is wrong." She gestured at the damaged city. "This is hurting people, Lee. You're going to have to choose between the right thing and following orders."
"It's not that simple," he objected.
She sighed. "I don't want to argue about it now. Will you still be able to leave me a message about where you're going next when you get to the mainland?"
"You're not . . . you're not stopping . . . us?" Zuko could scarcely believe it.
Her hands cupped his face, and Zuko closed his eyes, feeling her thumbs gently stroking his cheeks, the one of them brushing against the scar that had defined his life for so long. "I don't know how hard it must be to try going against your own people, Lee," she said. "But I know you're a good person. Everything you've done has showed me you're a good person. I have to give you a chance to prove it."
She started backing away, and Zuko quickly leaned in to kiss her. When it was over, they rested their foreheads against each other. "I'll try," he promised. "I'll try, but I . . . you don't know . . ."
"Shh. Just go. There's no time. I'll find your letter and we'll go from there," she told him, pressing another kiss to the corner of his mouth. Then Katara pointed him in the direction of the docks and his uncle, and they parted. The whole way back to the mainland, Zuko considered what she'd said. He still hadn't reached a decision when he left her a letter telling her the next few stops he and his uncle would be making.