Zutara's Story

Chapter Nine

"I need a second, Katara." Zuko got up and left the room. Once he got out into the hallway he punched the wall. Then he walked out onto the deck and let out a huge stream of fire, hoping that it would help release some of his anger. While Zuko was having his outburst, he realized something, so he went to go talk to Katara. He walked back into the dining room. "Sorry Katara I needed a second."

"Are you okay? That letter was kind of harsh." Katara said placing her hand on Zuko.

"I'm fine. I just realized that my Dad can't restore my honor, I have to. He doesn't even care that much about me, all he cares about is power. Why don't we take this boat and find the Avatar so that I can teach him firebending?" Zuko responded to his recent realization.

"I think if you want to take the boat instead of go on foot then let's go for it." Katara replied. "But I think you should go to the thing on Ember Island because they didn't do anything wrong and your father and Azula seem like they couldn't care less."

"And it could buy us some time before my Dad starts looking for us and the missing ship." Zuko came over and hugged me. Then he stopped and awkwardly stepped back. He looked nervous. "Would you go with me to this dance? Only as friends... if you want."

"Zuko, I would love to go with the dance with you but..."

"But what?!" Zuko interrupted immediately thinking there was something wrong with him.

Katara laughed. "But I don't have a dress or anything. I only have these water tribe clothes. Hardly something I could wear in the Fire nation much less to a dance."

"Oh that can be easily fixed. We are stopping at a port tomorrow and Uncle loves to shop. So tomorrow you can go dress shopping and I will give you money to buy it and some jewelry if you want." Zuko awkwardly responded.

"And where are you planning to be? Because it only makes sense that because we are going together you should help with the shopping."

"I didn't know if you wanted me to be there or not so I planned not to be. But I will be there if you want."

"I need your insight if I am going with you." Katara laughed.

The next day they walked off the boat. Katara grabbed Zuko's hand and dragged him into one of the cheaper looking stores at the Ember Island Port. Zuko gave her a quizzical look but let her continue. She picked out a brownish colored simple dress, there wasn't much shape or anything to it. She looked at the price tag. She was shocked when she saw that the one drab dress cost more than the food that she would buy when she traveled with Aang and Sokka. "I guess I will just wear my water tribe clothes, these outfits are so expensive. Back home no one buys anything, we work as a community so there is enough of everything for everyone."

Zuko took the dress and looked at the price. "Really? You think this is a lot of money. I still have access to the Fire Lord's funds, so we should buy an awesome expensive outfit before we go rogue and only have what is on the boat." They both laughed then left the store and walked over to one of the upper-end stores. She walked in and immediately was drawn to a two piece almost exactly like the one she had from her travels before, except it was trimmed in gold, and the bottom was a skirt instead of a skirt with pants under it. She grabbed it and went into the dressing room. She walked out and Zuko's jaw dropped figuratively and he couldn't take his eyes off her.

"Do you think will work?" Katara questioned.

"It's perfect. But we could make it better with this necklace." He walked over and unwrapped a necklace Katara gasped.

"This is gorgeous, is it for me?" Katara asked, shocked.

"Yeah, if you want it." Zuko shy answered, and Katara nodded. It was a red ribbon trimmed in gold with a pendant. The pendent was clear with blue water and orange fire intertwined. "Now let's go get you some more clothes so we can hang out on Ember Island without raising suspicion, and some shoes. You would want that right?" They went to some more stores and Katara got an outfit exactly like the one from her travels earlier, and they both got swimsuits.   

They got on the boat and Uncle started laughing. "Zuko I see for once you are the one to bring back a lot of stuff from a port. I bought a couple pai sho pieces, and a couple other trinkets."

Zuko then handed the bags to a soldier on the boat. "If you can take these bags to my room." She also got some shoes to match.

Then they were walking back to the boat and laughing. Zuko was carrying most of the bags but Katara had a few. "I think for once you bought more than I did."

"Well I wanted to get Katara a couple things and turned into a lot of things for both of us." Zuko responded.

"Well I'm glad Katara has been such a good influence on your shopping behaviors." Iroh replied, laughing. They all headed to their rooms because it had been a long day for at least two of them. That night was a full moon so Katara woke up in the middle of the night and went up to the deck so she could watch how the moon was reflected onto the soft wakes of the water. Then she turned to the shore so she could watch the waves crash and become white foamy water then climb onto shore. Suddenly there was a voice she recognized behind her. 

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Sorry it's taking so long.