Born Beneath An Angry Star

4. Healers and Saviors

It disgusted Katara to see the way everyone was treating Zuko like the group's newest little darling. All because he had taken it upon himself to become the chore boy of the group everyone else seem to have forgotten his past transgressions.

Right now Zuko was helping Haru, Sokka and Aang oil the metal shutters that protected the Western Air temple form outside attacks. Her brother and Aang were joking around with him as if he were an old friend. Why couldn't they see through him? She couldn't even rage about her distrust of Zuko with Suki because she seemed to have forgiven him too despite the fact that he'd once burnt down her village. Even her father was acting civil towards Zuko.

Without anyone to vent to Katara had to stew in her anger getting more and more annoyed by everything that Zuko did while simultaneously being annoyed with herself because Zuko's looks were having an effect on her. She would have to be as blind as Toph not to notice how handsome Zuko was. 

As if it wasn't unfair enough that a jerk like should be good looking he'd also been given a sexy voice. Though she would never admit that fact to anyone. Especially not Zuko. She also couldn't help but notice his body as he worked on oiling the shutters. He moved around with all the grace of a lion-panther. 

The muscle in his back flexed as he rubbed a cloth over one of the shutters. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up so she got a good look at his arms. He must have worked out constantly to get his muscles as well defined as they were. Not that it mattered to her. She didn't give a damn about Zuko or his well defined muscles.

She turned away from watching him. She had better things to do with her time anyway. It had been awhile since she practiced her waterbending forms and she figured that now was as good of a time as any. With everyone else engaged in their own activities it would also be easier without the myriad of interruptions she was used to dealing with. There was always someone who needed something from her.

She drew up water from the fountain and began going through her waterbending forms starting with the basics and working her way up to the more complex and intricate forms. It amazed her how much she had progressed from when she had first started learning bending. 

Fighting Pakku had been the turning point she felt. If she had not forced him into a fight she had no doubt that she would not be as far along as she right now, but proving Pakku wrong and forcing him to eat his words about teaching girls to bend was one hell of a motivator.

Katara's still got angry thinking about how Pakku had at first refused to train her. How after she'd come half way around the world he had dismissed her as if she were of no important consequence simply because she was a girl. She didn't take being slighted or wronged well. It was part of the reason why she was having so much trouble forgiving Zuko. 

All the wrongs he had committed against her and her people were bad enough but when she thought about how he had tricked her into opening up to him by making her feel sorry for him it made her blood boil. She felt as if the only reason he'd even told her about his mother was so that he could gain an edge on her. It had worked too. It worked like a charm.

She still remembered how she felt when she had touched his face. That moment in time seemed to stand still for her. She had been the one to touch him but he had touched her with his sincerity and vulnerability. For the briefest moment she'd been stupid enough to think that he really wanted to change from the monster that he was. That the trauma of losing their mothers would be something to bring them together instead it had be the thing that had pulled them apart.

 Now he expected her to treat him as just another person. To act as he was one of the gang. As if the whole thing in the crystal catacombs hadn't happened. He hadn't even apologized. He acted as if he'd forgotten all about that day and if he had it wouldn't have surprised Katara in the least. Zuko was a prince. Growing up the only person he ever had to think about was himself.