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juune-moon · 1 year

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A Game for Katara

To celebrate her birthday, Katara’s closest friends orchestrated a small getaway to Ember Island. The weather there was ideal this time of year, though it never really grew too cold. After a bountiful supper and quite a few drinks, the small group settled around an intimate campfire on the beach. Spirits were high as they laughed and chatted together for hours. It was as if they hadn’t missed any time, spending the last year scattered separately across the world.

“Alright, alright,” Sokka announces with the slightest hint of a slur, “I have a game. In honor of my sister,” he puts a cup-filled hand out to gesture in her direction, “for her birthday, everyone has to sum her up… using only one word. I…” he takes a large gulp of his drink, “will go first—bossy.”

No one laughs as loud as he, and Katara takes the jab from her brother in the calmest stride.

“Wow, thank you, Sokka!” She responds in mock appreciation.

“You’re so welcome,” answers Sokka without a trace of regret.

Katara twists her face into a vindictive smile before asking, “why don’t you have some more to drink,” and she bends the liquid from his cup right into his face causing him to cough and sputter.

Beside him, Suki laughs. “You deserve that!” She turns back to Katara, “I’ll go next: fair, in both balance and beauty.”

Her compliment is genuine and Katara thanks her directly.

“I think you’re lovely, Katara” adds Ty Lee, giving her a bright smile and coy shrug of her shoulder.

“Thank you, Ty Lee. This is so embarrassing….” Her face grows hot with the extra attention and she shakes her head.

“My turn!” Toph declares loudly, though she has not been imbibing as the most of the group has.

“Careful…” Aang warns next to her, quietly out of the side of his mouth.

But “sweetness” is all she has to say, stretching out the ‘s’ sound, and Katara cannot discern how much she means to offend her. Still, she accepts the submission with sisterly love.

“You’re up, Twinkles,” Toph says, nudging Aang on his arm with hers with more force than was necessary. His eyebrows raise and he inhales sharply.

“It’s so hard to choose just one, uh…” he looks up, searching the starry sky for an answer. He wants to get this right.

“How about… pretty.” His face fully blushes, but Katara cannot respond before Sokka mumbles into his freshly filled cup.

“Pretty bossy.”

Suki hits him in the chest causing him to spit. “You are not going to make it through the night!” Everyone laughs at the exchange and Suki playfully puts a hand over his mouth urging him to give it a rest. Sokka responds with a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows and Suki gives him a coquettish giggle.

“Okay, Zuko’s turn,” says Toph with a twinge of annoyance, actively drawing attention away from the couple. “What’ve you got for us, Sparky?” All quiet to hear his response.

“I’m sorry,” he looks around the group, slightly panicked. “I don’t have… a word.”

Katara blinks, somewhat crestfallen but hides her disappointment well enough. It’s Sokka who does not let him off easily.

“What?” he yells in exaggerated indignation. “That’s not the game that I just made up! You have to say a word!” He guards his mouth with his hand, but speaks in a whisper loud enough for all to hear. “Hey, I have a word you can borrow—.” But he is cut off by Suki who fully pushes him off the driftwood they had been sharing and onto the sand.

Zuko remains at a loss for words but catches Katara’s eyes from across the fire. She quickly decides to save them both from any further embarrassment.

“It’s fine. We don’t have to keep playing, it was just a way for Sokka to tease me anyway.” Sokka makes his way to kneel beside her, visibly inebriated.

“You know I’m only joking, Sis, you’re the best!” He throws his arms around her and lands a sloppy kiss on her cheek causing her to scrunch her nose in a smile. “Where would I even be without you,” he asks, resting his head on her shoulder.

“Where would any of us be, without Katara,” Aang adds.

“Here, here!” Katara hears someone say as everyone raises their voices in agreement.

“To Katara.” It is Zuko who raises his cup first, and the rest follow his lead. Katara’s eyes meet his again, and his gentle smile is disconcertingly heartfelt.

They toast her, and Aang tags on an extra ‘Happy birthday!’

Katara can only smile and stare at her feet in the sand, taking in this rare show of appreciation for her. “Thank you, everyone,” she says with sincere gratitude.

They take their final sips for the night and one-by-one begin to disperse, making their ways back to the beach house. A flustered Aang offers her a hug, which she returns, but lets go of before he is ready to. He leaves her with a last ‘goodnight’ and Katara stays to gather items that still need to go inside.

That fact that Zuko is last to linger makes the crackle of fire seem much louder than before when other voices were there to drown it out.

“Hey, I got this,” he offers as he attempts to take over her self-appointed chore.

“Oh, you don’t have to—.”

“It’s your birthday, don’t worry about it,” he insists. “You deserve a break more than anyone.”

She relents with hesitation, biting her lip, unsure of how to respond to his act of service. Zuko continues to straighten up with intent. Despite herself, Katara speaks.

“So… you have… no words for me, huh?” She lets out a small laugh, attempting aloofness, but hopes for an adequate answer from him just the same.

“Hm?”

It’s all he’s willing to give her. Surely, he couldn’t be that focused on such a simple task. He must have heard her, so she pushes on.

“Sokka’s stupid game… you couldn’t come up with… anything?” Her act of indifference is rapidly waning.

“Uh, no… sorry.”

Katara knows she does not possess the talent of suppressing her own irritation, but she continues to try.

“You couldn’t have just said I was… I don’t know… nice, or something?” And she is aware on some level that this is a foolish endeavor, childish even, despite the earlier celebration of her age and maturation. She is stubborn and cannot shake this, not with him.

“Nice?” Zuko almost snorts, causing Katara’s stomach to twist even further in agitation. “Not a chance.”

“Excuse me,” she asks with incredulity as a painful wave of anger reaches its crest within her. At this, Zuko abandons his cleaning efforts to face her from across the ever-growing campfire, her mounting rage clearly not lost on him now. Flames lick at his features obscuring her view from his expression. For a long moment they both stood frozen, silently challenging the other to speak.

Zuko breaks first.

“Katara, you’re…” he struggles, shaking his head.

She waits for his answer without breathing. Why is this so difficult for him? And yet, it was proving just as demanding for her to form words. He manages to continue, with a tone of defeat.

“You are…,” he swallows hard, gestures with his open hands, “passionate… compassionate…” she finally exhales at this, listening with soft surprise, “…powerful…” he continues his list.

Katara’s eyes flutter, forced to recalibrate her stance from one of attack, to being the one attacked. Something about his strained speech made her feel that they were teetering on the edge of a dark precipice, a secret thing they’d been dancing around since their friendship began. Perhaps even longer than that. It frightens her and excites her too. Zuko takes a few steps around the fire to lessen the space between them and her heart beats a little faster. He has already started and doesn’t bother stopping now.

“Fiercely loyal, entirely capable on the battlefield,” he pauses, “…emotional…” he says with a devious little smirk that simultaneously eases the tension and makes her heart skip a beat. She looks away with a smile, accepting his assessment of her, and giving her prior hostility a break. He takes a few more steps and when she looks back up she must raise her head a bit for their eyes to meet again. This proves more uncomfortable than it probably should between friends, like walking in on an intimate conversation that was not meant for her to hear. But she keeps her position, unable to breathe again.

“…and probably the most courageous person I’ve ever known.” Zuko says this last part in a much lower voice to make up for the change in proximity. Katara finds it hard to swallow and bites her lip again, unsure of what might come out of her own mouth. Her eyes flick down to Zuko’s lips and back up to his eyes, golden and wild with the reflection of dancing flames.

He is breathing slowly but a little harder now as he searches her face.

“One word could never suffice,” he considers as he unconsciously licks his lips, “and ‘nice’…” he emphasizes with a furrowed brow and curt laugh, “…wouldn’t even make the cut.”

“And…,” she finally swallows, “you couldn’t say any of that before,” Katara asks breathlessly. Zuko blinks, his eyes shifting downward.

“Not in front of the others…” he whispers, more to himself and looking back up, “but I mean it. All of it.” He is earnest in his affirmation.

Katara manages the barest nod. “I believe you,” she assures him, her vocal chords almost breaking.

They stand, close to each other, closer now than ever to something else still unnamed. Zuko hesitates, but pushes himself forward. When he speaks, his voice is raspy and so low she can barely hear it over the thrumming of her own heartbeat.

“Happy birthday, Katara.”

He leans in to place a tender kiss on her cheek, very unlike the one from her brother. It is careful, unhurried, and hints of something hidden away, just beneath the surface. Her eyes flutter closed and her heart pumps blood hard through her body while she stands paralyzed by the novelty of it all. His face hovers next to hers for a moment, leaving a phantom burn where his lips had touched. When he does pull away, it’s slow and his lengthened hair brushes against her skin, firing chills down her neck, causing her to shiver.

All she can hear now are the sounds of a thousand ocean waves, breaking and crashing all around them. It’s so much colder without his intense heat next to her and he backs further away to finish up his task. New thoughts and suppressed feelings stir around inside her, not taking any solid form quite yet. This inner chaos only perpetuated her ongoing paralysis.

If she doesn’t want him to walk away then she must do or say something, anything, but…

…all this passionate, compassionate, powerful, courageous girl can do in this moment is… remember to breathe.

By the time her senses return, the young Fire Lord, her former enemy, arms full of dirty towels and cups, speaks once more before making his way back to the house.

“I hope it was… nice.” A sly smirk returns to his mouth, but his eyes flash with something honest and hopeful.

Katara couldn’t say if she managed to return his smile, but she was definitely breathing, harder than ever. She was alone now, with just her own racing thoughts for company. She looked back at the bonfire, instantly transfixed by the light animated against the dark and monstrous ocean. Despite the entire day dedicated to her, she felt small and lost, the air around her growing colder by the second and she braced herself. Moving closer to the heat, she realized she had a choice to make now. She should just extinguish the flame now, snuff it out before it could grow any larger, before anyone got hurt. Or…

…she could just let the fire burn on through the night.

#zutara #I always imagined Katara as a Cancerian #♋️#fic:a game for Katara #atla #katara’s birthday #Zuko #Katara #not smut #zuko is an awkward turtleduck #my art #long post #fanfic

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