Love In War- Zutara

chapter 3

Aang wasn't completely bothered by katara and zuko's marriage, or the fact that they had kids together. But due to the accusations, a small part of him resented zuko for being with the woman that he had loved since the day she broke the iceberg.

But katara was happy, and that felt good enough. But was it really?

He was in Republic City at the moment with toph and sokka, suki couldn't come today, sokka had her on bed rest because she was pregnant with their second and third, and zuko would be here soon for a meeting. The Fire Lord left his wife at home because she wanted to stay with Zoe.

Aang knew that he was a part of the reason that katara was suspected of cheating.
An he knew it was wrong. But a part of him liked it, a part of him wanted it to be true, tho it wasn't.
Deep inside he wanted to be petty, withhold false information to keep the people on their toes, or say that the rumor was true and throw everything into chaos for zuko.

He should have been honest when confronted by the public about the situation, but chose to ultimately stay silent, leading some to believe in the affair.

Zuko looked like himself, happy to see old friends. Even the Avatar, who was currently the reason his marriage was faltering. He kept the positive additude, even when he didn't feel like being positive.

He actually came here because he wanted to talk to Aang.

But the fire Lord would have to wait even longer to talk to him because he brought Khloe along with him, and she liked Aang a lot. The thought rested in his head though, he just wanted to talk to Aang about him not speaking up when it came down to his opinion. He wanted to know why he didn't stand up for his friends when they needed him to, zuko though is wasn't like Aang do something like that, and hopefully Aang would be honest and tell him.
" Hi Uncle sokka! Hi Uncle Aang! I'm so happy to see you!" Khloe practically jumped into sokka's arms, then into Aang's. Khloe was always happy to see the rest of the gaang, and she was the closest with her uncles and toph.

(This is the  outfit that Khloe wore today in case you were wondering 👍❤️)

The meeting went on, Khloe occasionally chatting with sokka and Aang about how her, her siblings and her mother were doing back home. It came to an end just under an hour and a half, zuko waited until sokka left the room with Khloe, probably to take her shopping and site seeing through Republic City.

" Aang, can I ask you something?" Zuko said pulling Aang to the side
Aang knew what was coming, he didn't want to talk about it but he knew he'd be asked eventually.
" Zuko, if this is about the interview, I would have said something but what was there to say? She yours now and I'm happy because she's happy, I have no control over people's opinions." Aang said turning away from zuko, facing the door. " But you do have control over your opinion Aang, you could have said anything, you could have cleared the air fo us, and she's not happy because of your decision not to speak. Now my people look at her worse than they did before, and that's not good for her, me, or the kids. And what do you mean she mine now?!" Zuko raised his tone at the end of his statement, becoming a little upset with the Avatar.

" You know exactly what I meant! And I shouldn't have to say anything and it really isn't my place to, the people will believe what they want." Aang spat back at the Fire Lord raising his voice as well. " And plus, maybe I like that people believe that rumor, maybe I like the idea of katara cheating on you with me! And if I do so what?! What the hell are you going to do about it? Make me tell the people it's not true!?" Aang admitted in his small fit of anger how a part of him truly felt. And he had to admit it felt good to get it off his chest.

Zuko's fists clenched tight.

But he didn't explode on Aang like he wanted to, because he promised katare he'd keep a level head when he spoke to the Avatar.

At that moment toph, sokka, and Khloe along with suki came back into the meeting room.
" Daddy look at all the stuff Uncle sokka got me....... Umm, is everything ok?"

( Yes Khloe is the literal definition of daddy's girl so she refers to zuko as daddy  just like Zoe does lol )

Khloe saw that her dad still looked upset about something, witch she wasn't used to seeing. Even when her and her siblings misbehaved, zuko never got angry with them, raised his voice a little yes, but nothing more that that.
Zuko's face and posture softened as he noticed his little girl in the room.
" Yes, everythings alright honey." Zuko changed his frown to a smile, looking past aang at her. He walked past aang to her without saying another word to him, saying bye to suki, sokka, and toph. Khloe did the same, and zuko left with his daughter. Not pleased at all with his conversation with Aang and was still furious with him about what he said.
But he didn't show it to Khloe, even though a part of her knew something was wrong she didn't question her father about it. They headed to airship that was here to take them home, Khloe said goodbye to everyone once more before they departed for the fire nation. Zuko was on the balcony of the airship, looking at the ocean below whe he heard the door open behind him, it was Khloe, coming to ask him a question about his little incident she walked in on.

" Dad what happened with you and Uncle Aang back there? And why did you look so mad?" Khloe asked, curious about what bothered her father so much, even though she had a small clue, she wanted to be sure it was right.  " It was nothing, just political stuff. Nothing you need to be interested in until your thirty five." Khloe laughed at her dad, and she thought he was right, she wasn't interested in politics now and probably wouldn't be until she was in her thirties.
" But all jokes aside honey, it was nothing we can't patch up the next time we see each other." He said knowing she still wanted a real answer, she was sceptical and could see through the facade of words and lies like her mother. He knew that she knew he was not telling her something. But he said that they'd patch it to attempt to change her interest.

Khloe left her father with his thoughts after showing him all the stuff sokka had spoiled her and her siblings with. He thought about the things that Aang said to him. He still couldn't believe it, it felt like Aang had punched him in the stomach.

Zuko rubbed the bridge of his nose. He knew he had to tell katara what Aang said, it would be wrong to lie to her. Even tho he didn't want to tell her.

"How could Aang say, or even thinks something like that? Why would he want something like that?" Is all zuko could think. Zuko knew how Aang felt about katara but he didn't think Aang would still be that way about it.

He said he was happy but he obviously isn't.

Aang didn't feel as terrible as he thought he would about admitting his jealousy to zuko.
But he worried a little about what katara would think when he told her.
Aang pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind. He laid on his bed nin his room on air temple Island, alone.
The jealous part of him envied zuko for getting to be in bed with his love. Getting to hold her, kiss her, love her, and have a family with her.

That was all Aang had wanted, that's all that he thought he needed, was to be with her. and now what he thought was his destiny was taken by the man who used to be his first enemy, the one who hunted him all those years ago.

Aang thought about something as he laid there, envy taking over him. Half of the world already thought she'd cheated with him, and zuko wanted him to speak about it.

So that's what the Avatar was going to do.... He was going to tell the people what they wanted to hear....