FALLING BY LUNARVIOLENCE

Summary: Five things Zuko knew, and the one thing he doesn't.

Author's Note: hello everybody! lunarviolence is back with a zutara fic. so if a jelsa shipper is out there [miraculously] waiting for me to update home, i'm so sorry but i've tried COUNTLESS times on updating since two months ago, i even have a new chapter and all but for some reason the wifi is shitty and can't update so i'm really gonna be shitting bricks if this fic won't as well. i'll try again some other time when the typhoon season is over since it cuts off our internet all the time.

here are a few notes:

1) this was an inspiration from tumblr i saw a few weeks ago, it was basically a series of images depicting, well, five things you know and the one thing you don't and it's really sweet. here's the link if you want to check it out! (just remove the spaces.) azuila . tumblr post / 124249424947 / five-things-you-know-and-one-thing-you-dont. or you can just search 'azuila tumblr five things you know and one thing you don't.'

2) this story takes place sometime after s3 ep16 (the southern raiders episode, i believe.)

3) i wrote the little passages after the verse omg are you guys proud of me jk.

4) review! review! reviewreviewreviewreview!

Disclaimer: i own nothing but the story.

without further ado, i present to you all: falling.

:: ONE ::

she has an ethereal beauty that forms

her as an illusional delicate nymph.

The first time Zuko acknowledges his feelings for the nymphlike waterbender, he assumed he was first attracted by her alluring and unique appearance.

That's probably not the truth.

In all honesty, no one really knows the precise timing of the inevitable fall. All Zuko was aware of, he one day caught her bathing in the air temple's fountain—in her undergarments, Zuko thought, slightly begrudged.

Zuko was entranced in an instant, though. Unable to move. It's not like he wanted to, but he had to, since unlike many disgusting and perverted men, he was honorable. So he walked away before Katara saw him and deemed him as the opposite things he wanted her to see him as.

If you asked Zuko to describe Katara, he'd probably be speechless, but also sputtering nonsense for not a word can properly form from his lips. But then, he'd stop and breathe for a moment, heart thrumming and fingers trembling, then he'd be listing off the things that make Katara, an illusion of a sea nymph, a beauty unlike anything else that this godforsaken world has seen. He will not stop for hours if you'd let him.

But probably, just probably, the first thing that will leave the lips of the banished prince would be something along the lines of she's a fucking beautiful nymph. And really, no one can argue.

For him, she is of immortal beauty. Something too delicate to touch and taint. You cannot break her, for she is indestructible, regardless of the scars that cover her body. Some might say that she appears as an immortal, Zuko being one of those people, and that is because of her own free will. She will not decay, she will blossom even more so.

Still, he doesn't know when the pulse of his heart started racing in its own game of beating and throbbing for every time he catches sight of the waterbender. He simply tries to calm down and pull off an expressionless face despite his erratic heart.

It's hard to look at her, for she is too beautiful for his own eyes that has seen violence unravel in its flesh. But it is harder to look away from her, for she, to him, is the glory blooming in its flesh.

That, he knows, for sure.

:: TWO ::

it might be that there exists a tipping point between

burning and drowning. either way, both will suffocate you.

Sometimes, Zuko doesn't know whether he is consumed by fire or drowned in water, for every single touch of hers that flutters to his skin, it will feel like burning and drowning, simultaneously.

They were, as usual, sparring. It took Zuko all his strength not to pin her down and senselessly kiss her. You can't, he berates himself, for she might freak out and take off with that damned heart of yours that you so willingly gave her.

It was a cruel game. To have her so close but not quite. To let her touch him as much as she wants, whether in a hand-to-hand combat or during their healing sessions, but having to restrain himself so she'd stay. Either way, just her touch alone is enough to keep him warm, or cool, he doesn't know. He's being suffocated.

He's being suffocated everyday, by the possibility that she is not only a nymph, but also a goddess.

A goddess in a land of monsters, waiting and luring her to be tainted with all the darkness in the world, to dull the glow that emanates from the glory that is Katara of the Southern Water Tribe.

He might be exaggerating. Maybe she is only a princess, or simply just a little girl. He doesn't know. He can't focus. He can't think. Not when the aftermath of her feather-like touches sets his skin on blazing fire. Not when the aftermath of her gaze forces his own mind crashing down a cliff and into a sea of thoughts of her, her, her, and only her.

Zuko suffocates on a daily basis, and he is not the least bit bothered by it. In fact, he acknowledges it. He embraces it as if he was embracing the waterbender herself.

He knows it's hard to breathe in fire and in water, but he'll be damned if he doesn't try hard enough to live for her.

:: THREE ::

her voice lulls you to dreams

you never want to wake from.

There are times when Zuko wants nothing more than to listen to her voice all day. These are the times when it occurs to him that she might as well be a siren.

No, she is not a siren. A siren is said to be a woman who seduces her victims by singing to them her lullaby.

But, rather, Katara is an angel who lulls anyone and everyone into euphoria as she sings her lost songs. She will capture the hearts of anyone who breathes and bleeds, without even trying.

To Zuko, her lost song is her infamous voice that soothes the depths of his soul.

One day, when neither had nothing better to do, they decided to talk about anything and everything. The conversation was random, at most. One moment they were talking about turtle ducklings, the next it was about about spirits and their beliefs. They ventured off to what might happen tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that. Zuko, suddenly found himself laying his head on her lap as she brushed and caressed his hair tenderly, as if healing his past and taking away his sorrows. Once again, he had trouble breathing.

Nighttime came and all he can do was close his eyes and listen to her voice, in which, to him, is a song that birds are able to sing along to.

When neither had anything left to say, she started humming her own melody. And in that lullaby of hers, he found paradise. He found the best of his dreams in this girl and he never wanted to wake from it.

Maybe, she is a mermaid angel, with the sea in the palms of her hands, ebbing and flowing with vast waves of her luscious scent that he didn't mind diving in to.

For he knows, for sure, he will happily live a dream in a sea of lost songs and euphoria.

:: FOUR ::

her eyes are blue like the heavens above

that hide millions of stars and galaxies.

Zuko adores the way the sun gleams in her blue eyes and suddenly, the world is left to shades of black and white.

The world that we live in houses living things, things that are alive and meant to be taken care of. But in this universe, our world isn't the only one that is extraordinary.

There is such a thing called a star, a luminous ball that is most visible at nighttime. But, as it grows old, there are many options on how it will die and how it must be remembered.

That is what Zuko came to learn of our universe, but it seems he has learned more just by looking at the irises of Katara's heavenly eyes.

As he stared into her eyes in what felt like a lifetime, he found himself slowly leaning in. His eyes darted to her pink lips then back to her hypnotizable eyes. He licked his lips as he prepared himself for what might happen.

But then he saw her eyes slightly widen, like it just dawned on her what he desired to do, and suddenly her eyes weren't as bright. So he stopped. He pulled away before anything can happen. After a somewhat awkward apology, he looked up to her eyes once again, because it is so damn hard not to do so, and saw there was amusement in her enticing eyes. It immediately rekindled the light it momentarily lost. That alone, for him, sufficed.

He knows Katara is capable of keeping the universe in her eyes incandescent and alive, and he is willing to give everything he has to be a part of that world.

:: FIVE ::

let it be known to the world that though everyone

is a sinner, there are saints who live among us.

Zuko was raised to become steel, for you cannot bleed once you become steel. But it can make your enemies bleed and suffer a slow and painful death.

Zuko was a sinner, raised and fed by more sinners, only to banish him for he sinned against them.

Indeed, what a cruel world it is.

In his past lives, he assumed, he was probably the worst kind of sinners, as well. Scarred and traumatized, it's all too familiar. He wondered if maybe his decision on joining the avatar and his friends and helping them survive broke the curse. He wondered if it was all worth it.

But one look at Katara—the waterbender, the nymph of ethereal beauty, the sea goddess, the mermaid angel, the keeper of another universe—he knew, it was.

Indeed it was, until he fell in love.

Suddenly, falling in love was familiar, too. It felt like he was getting to know her all over again. Every moment with her felt like a memory being recalled from an afterlife. But did she love him back? Or was his previous assumption just another illusion made by her, as well?

She, a saint, and he, a sinner. She was far too precious to love someone as vile as him.

"Zuko."

"Hey, Katara—"

He was silenced by her lips. He was brimming with pure bliss and euphoria in her lips, to the point of no return. His mind went black, or rather it was exploding with emotions too many to feel. He doesn't know, he can't think, he can't beathe. He was burning and drowning, simultaneously. She was magnificence and grace in their flesh, his saving glory, an angel leading him to redemption with her lost songs of paradise and her deliriously lovely eyes that hid a universe. There was only one thing that managed to stay somewhat clear in his blank, but nuclear, mind.

She was finally his.

This, he decided, was the first step towards redemption. As well as the first step to a life he always wanted.

And he knew in an instant, out of everything he came to adore, he loves her the most.

:: SIXTH ::

no matter how damaged,

there is hope and salvation.

She loves you, too.

:: THE END ::

in time, i promise, you'll see

how everything came to be.