Promise To Move On For Me (Zutara)

Pain

It was the end of Ozai's rule, and Zuko had been named the Fire Lord just a few weeks ago. Everyone had gone their separate ways to make a future for themselves. Aang and Katara had left to help spread the peace throughout the earth kingdom before heading home to the south pole. Sokka and Suki were working together to repair the south pole and make it a great society again with the Kyoshi warriors' help. And even Toph had left to see her parents; now that she was a war hero, she hoped they would accept her and stop treating her like a fragile flower.

It almost seemed that in that moment they were never going to see each other again. It was hard to hold onto that hope when they were going to all be living worlds away. They would be extremely busy with political and personal matters.

It was a rather cool night in the fire nation when Zuko received a quiet knock on his chamber's door. It woke him from a rather deep sleep, and he tried to sleepily stumble to his door. When he opened it, there was no one there. He even scanned the halls to find that there was no single trace that a person had been there only seconds before.

Zuko was about to chalk the noise up to a hallucination in his dream when he noticed a small paper on the ground by his feet. He bent down and carefully picked it up. He turned back to his chamber and shut the door before opening it. It read:

Zuko... This is very urgent. I know this is bad of me to ask, seeing as you just became the Fire Lord, but I need to speak with you alone. The news I have is time sensitive, so meet me at your old home on Ember Island two days from now.

If you are having doubts on whether or not this is me, I know you told me about what happened with your mother, and the only other ones who know you told me about that are Sokka, Toph, and Aang.

I'm so sorry if this is an inconvenience, but I believe that this information will be important for you to hear.

- Katara

Zuko truly believed the letter was from Katara but became very confused. If the information was so important, why was she wanting to meet alone. Especially in such a secluded place like Ember Island. Just then, he felt a hand gently land on his shoulder. He turned to find Mai standing in her night clothes with a concerned look on her face.

"Is something wrong? You've been just standing here for a long time." Her eyebrows were knitted together, showing how she was feeling.

"No... No, it's nothing. Let's just go back to bed." Zuko said moving away from her grip to crawl under the covers. She sighed and followed behind. She turned away from him and blew out the candle she had lit when he woke up.

Against his better judgement he packed a small bag with essentials and snuck from the palace to make it to the island. When he reached the island and his old vacation home, he could see a small candle lit and waving in the wind that came from an open window. He took a deep breath and climbed his way to the door before entering the house.

"Katara? What's so urgent? And why aren't you still with Aang?" Zuko's voice was quiet and was barely audible from the other side of the room. A cold breeze ran through her hair from the open window she was sitting next to. Katara stood and turned without saying anything. She took a slow, deep breath as she tried to hold back the tears that welled in her eyes. Zuko ran to her side and pulled her into his arms. "What happened?"

"Aang... He... He's gone." She wasn't able to hold it back anymore and started sobbing into the other's chest. Zuko's eyes went wide as he processed what she said, but before he could ask her any questions, she continued through broken sobs. "We - we were ambushed *sob* by people who were upset that he defeated Ozai... He tried to fight them off but... there were too many of them..."

She trailed off. Zuko felt his heart breaking. He and Aang had become such good friends. He couldn't believe the Avatar was gone. The firebender wrapped his arms tighter around the brunette taking a deep breath. Even with his own pain, he knew that Katara had to have been feeling it even worse. Aang and her had begun dating before they left.

"Katara... I'm so sorry." Zuko said softly as he moved them to sit down. He simply held her as she cried for what seemed like hours. When she finally started to calm down, her breathing was inconsistent and littered with hiccups. She leaned away from Zuko's grip, and their eyes met. His eyebrows drew together in concern as one of his hands lifted to brush away the few tears that were still falling.

"I think I'll be okay now.... I just can't believe he's gone..." Katara's gaze moved to the beach and sea that could be seen from the open window. Zuko sighed as his eyes fell to his hands that were now resting in his lap. He glanced back up at her for a moment. There were so many questions he wanted to ask, but it felt disrespectful since she was still grieving so much.

"I at least have to ask... Why did you come here?" Zuko asked as he gently scratched the back of his neck. He hoped he hadn't offended her by asking. It wasn't that he wasn't happy to see her again, it was more of why did she come to him, while she was grieving, and not Sokka. She turned to look at him with a soft sigh.

"Everyone was making me feel even worse about it. They were saying I didn't try to save him at all." She could feel the tears desperately wanting to cascade down her face again, but she took a shaky deep breath to hold them back. "I wasn't there to save him. If I had stayed with him, this wouldn't have happened. It's my fault."

Without another word Zuko wrapped his arms tightly around Katara again. He wouldn't let her blame herself for it. She loved Aang and there was nothing she could have done if they had ambushed Aang. Zuko was being so kind to her that it broke her resolve, and the tears started pouring from her eyes again.

"It's really not your fault no matter what anyone says, and it never will be. We both know that." Zuko said gently stroking her hair when he started to feel tears wet his shoulder again. Her sobs were quieted by the slightly awkward position by which he had hugged her.

They both stayed like that the rest of the night. Katara had fallen asleep in Zuko's arms from her emotional outburst. Zuko, on the other hand, had troubled sleep from the way he was pinned against the window after the waterbender had passed out. After all she had been through, he felt that she needed some sleep, and he was not going to wake her because he was slightly uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry for falling asleep on you." Katara whispered as she slowly sat up. Zuko stretched to work out the kinks left in his back. She gently rubbed at her eyes which still hurt from the crying she did the night before.

"No. It's fine. You were having a rough night. You needed a shoulder to cry on." Zuko said standing up from the bench they were sitting on. He sighed as his gaze shifted to stare out the window as if in deep thought.

"What do we do now though?" Katara asked bringing his attention back to her. Tears were slightly forming in her eyes for what seemed to be the hundredth time that week. Unfortunately, Zuko was certain that he'd say would only make matters worse.

"I think that's up to you now. " Zuko placed a hand on her shoulder softly. He hated to put this pressure on her. He wished he had all the answers and could help her through all of this, but he also knew she needed to find her own path through this pain. Little did they know that their paths were about tangle.