Zutara mini series

Chapter Nine

Zuko just after the dinner ended asked for Katara to stay at the palace for the next few days until the wedding of her brother. He offered to travel together to her house. He convinced her that he just wanted her to stay because he was lonely. But in reality, he just wanted her near, to be able to spend every minute of his day with her. Seeking her advice and her company. And when he was busy she explored the Fire Nation, she dressed herself in traditional clothes and hid her eyes as much as possible. To be honest, Katara thought that the Fire Nation had an exotic beauty to it, it was so much different from her home. She found herself getting comfortable with her new reality and she was dreading the moment she would part once again with her beloved Zuko. When the opportunity arrived to spend time together without any worries away from everyone they grasped it with both hands.

On the ship, Zuko and Katara had tried to play Pai Sho. Neither was particularly endowed in the way of tactics or patience trivially so eventually they just started flicking the pieces at each other. Katara ended up getting one down his billowy sleeve and Zuko went utterly red when he managed to get one to ricochet off her chin down her top. In the process, Katara told him stories about her home. She told him about how they'd all climb under Gran Gran's sleeping furs together on the coldest nights in winter and rotate who was on the outer edges (inspired by the behavior of the otter penguins. She told him about the small tight-knit community and how her Gran Gran practically single-handedly stopped everyone one starving when all the men left. How growing up with Sokka was. The way they played around the snow with penguins and other arctic animals.

Despite the increasingly cold temperatures she was still gloriously warm company. She'd hum around the ship; and offer to help the ship hands and chefs. More than both of those, she offered Zuko conversation and companionship. More often than not they'd sit in his office (which an adviser had insisted on him having in his private ship), with a fire crackling creating the only ambient noise, and just read. Different books, silently, together.

He was looking forward to their arrival because she was. He was slightly nervous to reacquaint with her Grandmother after the last time but, according to Katara, Gran Gran believed that the Zuko she first met (getting close to 3 years earlier) was "in desperate need of a new haircut, a hug and a kick in the pants".

Katara would then proudly state that he'd gotten all of those things so her Gran'd have to be in some way happy. Then she'd rest her head on his shoulder and giggle and, despite Zuko perhaps not totally enjoying the prospect of his former style and attitude choices being mocked, he'd smile and let out a silent chuckle.

They'd been reading by the fire, him on the loveseat with his feet on the coffee table and her lounging on the same loveseat with her feet on him, when Admiral Jee (apparently having trouble with authority figures helped a man avoid one of the greatest loses in Fire Nation Naval history), who was the Captain of their vessel, announced that the Southern Water Tribe was now in view and arrival would be in 2 hours.

She'd let out an adorable squeak of excitement, gotten up in a hurry, and grabbed her parka which hung by the door before briskly making her way toward the deck. Zuko picked up her book (which she'd haphazardly flung in the process) and placed a marker in it before grabbing his own parka, a burgundy sort of color that came from trying to dye something that was once blue to red and following her out of the ship.

When he caught up she was standing on the bow, wrapped in blue and fur, motionless, staring at the emerging settlement in the distance.

The fact it was even visible from such a distance was a testament to how much the village had grown. The closer they got, the more detail was visible…and the more disheartened Katara seemed to be. Her home had changed radically in the months she had been missing. She barely even recognized it. The old huts were replaced by giant buildings. They didn't seem as homely anymore, they looked more like the North Pole where the houses seemed cold and inhumane. Nothing had the familiar warthog she craved and Zuko could she plain as day on her face her sadness. It seemed like his palace had never been his home and only recently it turned that way because of his uncle and his friends.

The cold air whipped his hair and kissed his heated cheeks, if he closed his eyes he was back on Appa, seventeen years old trying to figure out himself. Being surrounded by his friends and spending endless time with Katara. It was the one thing that he missed the most. Sure they kept contact via letters but everything was so formal and evasive because he was scared that someone could steal his mail. So he had to be formal, almost act like he didn't even know who he was talking with. A person that existed only on paper and not in real life.