Author's Notes: Oh yeah, I totally had to contribute to the Season Finale preview. Implied Zutara, I guess. I don't own Avatar.
He wonders what it's like to taste water; that day when he was sick he needed, desired, wanted so very much to have the liquid fill him and be drenched in it. It didn't taste the way he thought it would, but remembered that that wasn't the type of water he wanted to quench his thirst with.
She walks proudly and with a smile because everything seemed perfect. She knows she knows that nothing is ever perfect. Katara is the first to see the truth amongst her but she is the only one to know. The Dai Li took her and locked her in a cell that oddly resembled a cave.
"Looks like they caught you, too"
...and it wasn't until her blue eyes met his golden ones that she noticed who exactly she was stuck with.
He asks her why she's there, and she replies with the usual for a heroine. It goes along something like, the evil dooer and her crew (the dangerous ladies that consisted of his sister and two other fire nation girls) has entered the main base (Ba Sing Se) and are getting ready to take over to win the war. She happened to stumble upon their meeting with the conspirator (that bastard Long Feng) and was taken to an underground cell (where she thought they relocated Lake Laogai) and found him, here.
"You're always getting into trouble aren't you?"
"It's the price you pay when you're with the Avatar, saving the world and stuff, you know?"
He nodded, and she nodded.
...and then she noticed something about him. If she could place her finger on it she would've brought it up by now, but she couldn't.
He seemed to notice this too, by that expression on her face. "You're wondering why I'm not shooting fire blasts, aren't you?"
She nodded, "and being an arrogant jackass" she added.
"That's all in the past"
She was so surprised by his statement that she felt like hitting herself, hard, with a very blunt object.
This was Zuko she was trapped with, right?
The same guy with the ponytail, who apparently decided to cut off the ponytail for the greater good.
The same guy who had her mother's necklace and tried to bribe her with it?
She looked at him, squinting her eyes to make sure this was Zuko she was seeing and not some imposter; the scar was there, and that proved it.
"I bet you're surprised to hear me say that"
Oh, was she ever surprised to hear that!
"I learned a lot of things recently, and one of those things was that the past is the past." he sighed, and she took notice of how uncomfortable he seemed. "It'll always be there, no matter what I do or who I choose to be."
She was starting to like the new Zuko, and it was about time he turned a new leaf; deeper and deeper she fell.
There was an uncomfortable silence that followed soon afterwards. Everything was going too fast, and she wasn't sure whether to try and get out, or somehow try to figure out why Zuko was here in the first place.
She chooses the first option.
"Maybe we should try and figure out how to get out of here, Zuko." she hadn't used his name in awhile. "We can't stay here forever."
He nodded, "fire bending is out of the question. The shiny things around us are what my uncle uses to start fires."
Oh, well crap then.
"I could try and use water bending." she reached to the curve of her hip, waiting for fingertips to reach towards the lid of her water skin pouch but...
"what's wrong?" he noticed the worried look on her face and wondered why she was moving her fingers like that in thin air.
"My water skin pouch, I-I must've left it in the palace!"
"That's...not good."
...and for once in her life she agreed with somebody from the fire nation, the banished prince no less!
She slumped down on the ground and sighed heavily. "We're basically stuck here, then."
"I guess you could say that."
She sighed again, and she heard him sigh.
Time seemed to go by slow for the two benders, she noticed, and wondered if they'd ever get out of this place alive. They decided to try and at least have some sort of conversation.
"What was your name, again?"
She looked to the left side of her shoulder, "what did you say?"
"I asked, what's your name? I never really caught it, and back then I didn't care to catch it, but I'm suddenly curious."
She smiled without knowing, and replied in a muttered breath "Katara"
(From the color of her eyes, to the flow of her braid trailing down her back whenever she paced back and forth. Everything about her, reminded him of water.)
(From the color of his eyes, which were not only remarkably golden and rich in royal color, but seemed to have its own fire deep within, to the way his body posture sat. everything about him reminded her of fire. he was cool and calm, like a blaze controlled by a bender, but without the destruction.)
"How's your family like?" she asked him.
He hesitated for a few seconds, before answering. "My father always hated me, and my sister always resented me." (She placed a hand on her chest above her heart, as if feeling his anguish somehow) "My mother, though, she loved me. My uncle, he's a great man, and I love him."
"Your uncle is a great man, I could tell..."
There was silence once again, and it was him this time that broke the ice.
"Your family, how are they like?"
"You already met my brother, so you know how he's like." ("tell me about it" he replied silently to himself) she relaxed her shoulders a bit, "my father went off to fight in the war, and my mother..."
He noticed her shoulders tense up, and how quickly her body language changed; he was thinking maybe he shouldn't have brought up the subject of family to her.
She hugged her knees to her chest, and felt the tears flowing hotly down her cheeks. They seemed to burn and re-open old wounds and scars left behind. "There was a fire nation raid at my village, and they..."
He heard her choke back a sob, and wondered if right now would be a good time to comfort her. Yet, somewhere deep inside, he felt that she didn't need comforting. (She's already strong, he thought to himself, and he knew that first hand. he almost envied her...)
"They took my mother away from me..."
His face, first cool and calm, now relaxed into a saddened expression. He was feeling sympathy, sympathy, for a person he didn't even know all that well. He supposed it was because they both shared the feeling of losing a mother.
"That's something we both have in common." he replied, and she didn't notice his remark at first, until she heard him walk to her. The footsteps grew louder and louder when he approached closer, but she didn't want to look at him.
...and when he placed both hands on her shoulders, it was then that she noticed he was no longer her enemy.
He seemed more like, a friend.
She used her sleeve to dry away the tears that were still trickling down, and then stood up. (With his help; he took her hand in his, and she felt the world stop.)
She released her hand from his slowly; the scar was now in visible view in front of her, and wondered why he had it. He took notice of her gaze darting towards the scar, and wondered what she was thinking.
"Should I...even ask how you got that scar?"
"My father gave it to me," he replied without hesitation, something he found surprising "the day he banished me."
She flinched, an eyebrow arching and teeth biting down her lower lip. "That must've hurt."
"It still does, sometimes."
Without hesitation, she asked if she could touch his scar. She noticed the look in his eyes (she felt like a moth, lured by the flames within his eyes) and reasoned he wouldn't let her touch it. To her surprised, he closed his eyes and nodded.
With her right hand, she reached towards the dead skin on his face and gently touched it. He flinched, but then relaxed when her fingers slowly traced the scar from the side of his nose, to where it ended right on his ear.
It was then that she remembered the water from the spirit oasis that master pakku gave her; reaching into her pocket with her left hand, she grabbed the vial and showed it to him. "I could heal your scar, that is, if you want me to."
"How can you do that?" he asked her, looking at the vial she held in her other hand.
"This water comes from the spirit oasis in the North Pole. The master who trained me said it had certain properties to it, and I think that maybe it'll be able to heal your scar."
He shook his head, "That's...really generous of you but I can't. It's part of who I am..."
"So you want to be stuck with a reminder of your past burned literally on your face?"
She could tell he was thinking it over. Even after spending only a little amount of time with him, she could already tell what he was thinking. (He wasn't as mysterious as she thought he would be)
...and that was when zuko decided that he should keep his scar. Although it seemed masochistic, it was the only thing he had left of his father. That, he believed, was most important because it was a reminder of the person he shaped himself to become afterwards. Not only that, but it served as the catalyst for the person he is now.
"Your offer is kind and generous, but I'm going to keep it."
Something clearly must be going wrong somewhere in the universe to have the fire prince act this way.
She slapped him, hard, on his other cheek of course.
For some reason, he didn't see that coming. Something welled up inside of him, and that calm cool fire that was once his personification became the old raging fire from old. "What makes you think you have the right to smack me, peasant?" he said through gritted teeth.
If this encounter happened during the time he chased them, then she would have no hesitations giving him a lesson or two.
For now, however, she decided to refrain herself. "I just wanted to make sure that you were the same Zuko from before."
...and that's when he realized that what he said when he was younger was true, girls are truly crazy.
"Now," she grabbed his arm and pulled him along with her, "let's find a way out of here."