Chapter Text
They sat next to each other, still naked, sharing breakfast from one of the prepared hampers that had been in the hut. They’d partially draped one blanket around them, but Zuko was finding that he didn’t mind the temperature at all with her pressed against him like this, and he was more than willing to let her call this summer if it meant that neither of them had to bother putting on clothing.
Katara had also been thoughtful enough, after they’d woken from a post-coital snooze, to heal all of his frostburns from the previous night, apologizing profusely the whole time. He was sure she was sincere, but he’d seen the expression on her face as she’d looked over him – like she was congratulating herself a bit on a job very well done.
Then she’d gone a step further, tracing her healing waters over his significantly worked-over dick, which he’d appreciated. It’s not that he was hurt, per se – just feeling a certain level of soreness.
The silence between the two of them was comfortable, and even pleasant as they snuggled, but after a little while Zuko looked over at her, very seriously. “Why did you stop writing me letters?”
She looked down and fiddled with her food – kind of a baked and breaded fish thing. It actually wasn’t that bad. Fairly mild for his taste, true, but Zuko had long since resigned himself to the fact that the Water Tribe had absolutely no idea how to season food. “I didn’t. I wrote you a pile of them. I just… stopped sending them.”
He felt the pang in his chest. Somehow, thinking that she’d just forgotten about him, or wasn’t taking the time to write to him, had been less hurtful than this. “Why? I really liked them, Katara.” He slid a hand in her hair, and it was the way she automatically pressed into his touch, the sweet intimacy inside the hut, that gave him the nerve to be honest. “They really made me feel… less lonely. Like I wasn’t left out. Stuck.”
“I’m so sorry,” she said, and there was a blunt sadness in her eyes. “But… when everything with Aang started falling apart so badly, it felt like the only time I could really talk about it was in my letters to you. But then I felt embarrassed to send them. So I thought I’d just wait a while, and the pile got bigger, and bigger, and then just the thought of sending you a whole satchel of letters was just… I couldn’t do it. Sokka kept threatening to just take the whole pile and send it to you, but I made him promise not to even mention it to you.”
“Can I have my letters?” Zuko asked quietly. “If you’re okay with it now? You could just… I mean… would it be easier to explain what was embarrassing in them?”
She made a low, strangled noise. “I’m pretty sure you already know, Zuko.” She made a broad gesture, encompassing the two of them, the nudity, and… okay, yeah, there is going to have to be some clean-up of these blankets.
He looked at her blankly for a long second, then finally his mind accepted that, somehow, she did indeed seem to be saying the impossible. “…this? You wanted this?” He absolutely could not take this – she had to be kidding, or he had to be misinterpreting something, somehow. There was no way he had been sitting alone in his palace, meditating off sexual frustration that many mornings, practicing his bending and his sword work that many nights until he was so beaten into the ground that his body had to just give up out of sheer exhaustion, and she had somehow also been wanting it. Him. This.
Even for his life, the irony was just too sharp.
“I mean, kind of also, but mostly…” she put her hands in front of her face, covering her eyes. “Things started with Aang when I was barely fifteen, okay? And he was really, really not ready for anything that was physical, beyond the occasional smooch. And it made a lot of sense for us to kind of try to grow up a bit, but then he didn’t want to stay down here, not even to train with Pakku, and I did want to stay, so we were apart most of the time, and I kept waiting for the moment when I would look at him and feel some attraction, like” she burrowed further down into the blanket, like a small animal hiding, “okay, don’t even look at me, but like I used to feel when you were traveling with us.”
He stared at her. “What.”
“But you were dating Mai!” Katara squeaked, but she dropped her hands and looked at him again, and he could see a curl of frustration on her face. “And then she’d saved you at the prison, and even when I was done being angry at you, and we got really close, I couldn’t say anything because that definitely didn’t sound like a real breakup, no matter what Sokka kept telling me—”
“Wait, Sokka was telling you – what?”
“To talk to you. About how I felt. But then… there was the play—”
“That fucking play—” He was going to outlaw the Ember Island Players, as soon as he got home. Hereditary monarchs got to do crazy shit all the time – and he was owed this one. That, somehow, she’d been wanting him when he was wanting her – this was too much. A one-sided attraction that was never meant to be – he could’ve handled that. Dealt with that. But that both of them—
“—and Aang wanted something that I didn’t feel, but then there was also that whole world-ending comet situation, and by the time everything was settled, you and Mai were together, so I just… figured that I’d missed my shot. And Aang needed me.”
Zuko pressed his hands to his cheeks, appalled. “Please, please tell me that you haven’t been in a relationship with Aang for six years because you felt that it was what Aang needed—”
“Technically, five years.” There was just a little hint of prim precision, and Zuko viscerally remembered how well Katara could split conversational hairs when she knew she’d fucked up good. “We broke up almost a year ago now. It was kind of definitive when Dad kicked him out of the village.”
Zuko’s hands went from his cheeks to his hair, like yanking his own hair could somehow jumpstart his brain and make this make sense. “Aang told me that you were on a break. That you’d be moving in together to one of the air temples soon.”
She looked surprised. “Oh, you asked him?”
“Of course I asked him, because I’ve been crazy about you for years!”
“Oh.” He could see it really hit her then, all the implications that he’d been wrestling with for the last minutes, see them really sink in like boulders into a lake. “Well. Shit.”
“Yeah.” He stared at her. They were still naked, under a blanket, and they’d managed to have more sex within a few hours than he and Mai had managed during years of on and off dating, but—
“Well.” And something had changed. In her voice, in her eyes, in the expression on her face, even the way her body felt against him. She’d made some kind of decision, and it was clearly a very Katara kind of decision, because she only did things one way – decisively. She leaned closer, blue eyes meeting gold. “Aang can call it a break until the sky-bison come home, but it’s not. I’m not fifteen anymore, and he is sure as hell not thirteen anymore, and I made myself very clear to him the last time we talked.” She flipped the hamper lid closed, then leaned against Zuko, her hand sliding against his bare stomach, and a lot of things suddenly felt very, very possible. “And I’m done talking about Aang. Do you feel done?”
He’d seen that challenge in her eyes a hundred times before. Maybe not in these particular circumstances, but many times. And it affected him like it always had – he wasn’t going to back down. Not from her. Not ever.
There was more to say. There was so much here to unpack. But she was here, with him, and he could worry about everything else later, because he’d be damned before he missed one more second of her. “Extremely done,” he agreed, then slid his hands along her jaw, his fingers just brushing her hair, and pulled her down for a long, hard kiss.
**
Much later, and another well-earned nap behind them. This time they weren’t sitting up, just remaining wrapped around each other, her leg slung casually over his, and Zuko’s hands slowly tracing over her back and spine like he wanted to memorize every inch of her skin.
“So… Sokka said you were a Spring Gift baby?”
She hummed softly in agreement. “Yeah. The tribe was in really bad shape back then. The raids had pushed us way out of our normal hunting grounds. Sokka was only about a year old. No one else in the tribe was willing to risk a pregnancy, so all the women who were going to accept the gift were going to drink the contraceptive tea. I think my parents were kind of desperate to do something for the tribe, to bring us a little luck, so my mom made a big show of pouring out her tea, and saying that she and my dad were going to trust the spirits.” Katara gave him a small, bittersweet smile, and he understood – both of them had been shaped by the war before they’d even been conceived. “And that was it. I was the Spring Gift baby - and the last baby the tribe risked for almost nine years, because then things got even worse for us.”
He rested his head against her, rubbing his cheek slowly against the crown of her head, feeling its silkiness against his cheek, where he still had sensation. Where the scar was, he mostly had sensations of pressure, sometimes a little echo of old pain, but right now he couldn’t bring himself to mind, and she clearly didn’t care that it was the scarred side that was touching her. “And you were the only bender, too. That’s some good luck.”
“Well, I also win raffles a lot, too,” she said modestly, and then gave him a little smile. “But they trusted in the spirits. And we have a whole dozen new benders in the kids who’ve been born since the comet, so maybe the spirits are happier with us. Certainly Pakku is pleased about having more kids to teach. Last week our spar ended in a draw, and I think it really spooked him.”
Zuko gave her a long, steady look. “So… about accepting the gift…”
She looked up, met his eyes, and gave him a reassuring nod. “I drank the contraceptives, Zuko. Accepting the blessing is important for the tribe, but I was figuring that I was probably going to end up with Noack, and having a baby with Noack is really not something I have plans on doing.” A small expression crossed her face, like she looked years ago when they’d been ordering food from a street vender, and he’d offered her a bite of his – hot even by Fire Nation standards.
“Oh. Good.” And as glad as he was that she’d taken the contraceptives, that there wouldn’t be any massively life-altering and diaper-involved repercussions from what they had done, and what he had every intention of continuing to do, because there was no mistaking the definite eagerness that she had when she responded to his touches, it was also distinctly satisfying to know that she found the very thought of Noack knocking her up to be profoundly icky.
Because fuck that guy.
Katara was watching him, and something about how very satisfied he was to hear a slam against Noack made her smile, and she scooted closer again. “Have I thanked you yet?” she asked, her voice dropping into almost a purr, a tone that he was getting very pleasantly familiar with at this point. “Because seeing you in the line definitely felt like a gift. One just for me.”
Zuko’s smile had an edge, and his eyes narrowed, watching her. Wondering what she was planning. Very ready to see where she was going with it. “I think a whole lot of what you’ve done can be counted as a thank you.”
She pressed a kiss to his mouth, then his chin. Then his throat. And then she was sliding down his body, pressing a precise series of kisses in a line that went in one direction, until she was kneeling between his spread legs, looking very pleased with herself. “I want to be really clear, though,” she murmured. Then she pressed a soft kiss to the head of his dick, her smile spreading at the sound he made, and then breathed, “Thank you, Zuko.” And then she slid her mouth over him.
Zuko tangled his hands in her hair, pulling it back a little roughly, not wanting anything to get in the way of what he was both feeling and watching.
“I’m going to have to thank Sokka for forcing my ass onto the ship, but in a very different way.” And he could feel her soft chuckle around him.
**
It was almost noon when she finally pulled on her dress, and he lazily fastened his pants, and they walked back to the village, hand-in-hand.
The difference between yesterday and today was clear – people were out, kids were running around everywhere, and the whole village looked like it was in a great mood. There were a lot of raised eyebrows when he and Katara walked by, and definitely a few people muttering comments, but everyone looked fairly positive.
Well, not the Northern benders. Zuko caught sight of Noack, giving him an absolute death stare, and he just gave his most infuriating smirk back, deliberately dropping Katara’s hand in favor of sliding an arm around her waist. Very low around her waist.
Okay, it was at least a partial ass grab.
Katara didn’t seem to mind at all. He could hear her soft, barely smothered giggle, and then she waved to Noack. “Blessings of Tui and La to you, Noack!”
Oh, the barely contained expression on the Northern man’s chiseled face as he had to bite his tongue, force a polite smile, and wave slowly back to her. “And also to you, Katara,” he said, then turned and stalked away.
Zuko had already been having an amazing day. Now it was clearly a fantastic day.
Zuko would normally have felt a bit more self-conscious about how utterly post-coital he and Katara look right now, or that he was strolling shirtless through the village, with one of his boots still missing a shoelace and his pants missing two buttons from how thoroughly Katara had removed them the night before, but half the village was also busily engaging in meaningful looks, smiling kisses, and a little friendly groping here and there, so, whatever.
It was important to learn from other cultures, after all. He was really sure that Iroh had said that to him a few times. And, apparently, Uncle was so right.
**
They reached the four hut family circle that Zuko had read so many descriptions of in letters over the years that he actually recognized it before he spotted Sokka, scraping a hide beside his hut and whistling cheerily.
Katara threw herself straight at Sokka, squealing loudly, “You are the best brother, ever!”
Sokka spun her in a wide circle, and the two laughed together. “You know it!” he said, and popped Zuko a thumb’s up behind her back as the two continued to celebrate. Zuko just stood and smiled at the sight of the two of them – for a moment it was very easy to see the shadows of two teenagers instead of a pair of actual adults.
The Water Tribe men and women that Zuko had passed all looked distinctly chipper, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. It was, to be honest, just a bit irritating, because, despite the naps he’d taken here and there, Zuko was definitely feeling the impact of a very long, albeit extremely satisfying, night. And morning. And mid-morning.
But he wasn’t the only non-Water Tribe person in this village, and the other lived in this circle of huts.
Suki, Earth Kingdom through and through, was partially sprawled on the bench outside the hut that she and Sokka shared, lounging in the sunshine wearing just a loose robe, and she looked every inch a woman who had been fucked all night. Exhausted, but also quite mellow. Like it was well worth it. Probably a bit how Zuko himself was looking at the moment.
Zuko gave her a sidelong look. “Really didn’t feel the need to share that the Water Tribe has a yearly damn sex ritual?” Come on. That one really should’ve been worth a letter, even from a woman practically allergic to keeping in touch.
Suki gave a casual shrug, her robe sliding down her shoulder. “Eh. It felt a bit too much like bragging, really.” She gave him a lazy smile and a wink. “I should probably thank you, though. Sokka always feels pretty frisky after a plan comes together successfully, but pairing that with Tui’s blessing… I mean, nights like that really help to offset the winter weather.”
“Yes, okay. I see the bragging now,” Zuko muttered. A few feet away, he heard Katara promising Sokka that she was going to cook whatever he wanted for dinner – for a year.
Well, it was good to know that he was worth a reward – oh, damn, Suki was right. It definitely came off as bragging.
**
Zuko had realized that the Water Tribe had different nudity taboos than the Fire Nation. After all, he’d traveled with Sokka and Katara for months, and it had been made abundantly clear many times that they were keeping their sarashis on during swimming only out of respect for the extreme body zealotry of those around them. However, they were the only two Water Tribe members he had ever spent time around, and perhaps part of him had just chalked all the complaining up to personal quirks, and he hadn’t fully processed the implications of that until Katara picked up a small bag of supplies in her hut, and led Zuko down to the hot springs.
Everyone looked casual and happy. Neighbors were leaning over to chat with each other. Family groups bathed together. Small children were running everywhere, usually trailed by older siblings or extremely harried parents. It was, on the whole, a very peaceful atmosphere. An extremely, extremely naked atmosphere.
He really loved Katara. Would very happily kill for her, had once jumped in front of a lightning bolt to protect her, had agreed to participate in a sex ritual for her without even remotely being given the full particulars of the situation before he signed on.
This, though – it was profoundly, excruciatingly weird to put his clothing into Katara’s bag and sink into the hot water next to her.
Right across from her grandmother and Master Pakku.
Kanna was smiling. Pakku was scowling.
“Did you have a nice Spring Gift moon, Katara?” Kanna asked pleasantly. Zuko choked and very nearly died of a critical mortification overload in that moment.
Without seeming to register Zuko’s extreme distress, Katara just smiled happily back to her grandmother. “Very nice, Gran-Gran. And you?”
Kanna leaned over and gave Pakku an affectionate kiss on the cheek. “Excellent as always.”
Zuko stared.
Then started processing that, apparently, there wasn’t an age ceiling to this whole spiritual fuck-fest that the Southern Water Tribe had, and that the implication here was that her grandmother and Master Pakku have just spent the entire night having sex and, okay, he was officially not ready for this.
Pakku was still glaring at him.
Katara shot him a small, chiding look. “GrandPakku, I know that you’re probably having some big feelings right now—”
“There were a dozen Northern waterbenders right there, Katara! Right. There,” Pakku snapped, his cheeks flushing in agitation. “And—”
Kanna cleared her throat, very loudly, and gave her husband a distinctly narrow look.
Pakku’s mouth snapped shut, and he took a deep breath, visibly trying to calm down. Then he looked over at Zuko.
Venomous. That look was venomous.
Zuko had scooted down almost to his shoulders in the water, and it still would never be enough, because he was so extremely aware right now that everyone was naked. He was trapped in a hot spring with Katara’s grandparents, and everyone was naked.
Katara had been worth the frostburns. She was worth this. But he would definitely pick the frostburns any day over this.
“I’m so grateful, Zuko,” Pakku muttered through gritted teeth, “that you assisted my beloved granddaughter in the celebration of La’s Gift. Truly, blessings will fall on us all.”
“Thank you, GrandPakku,” Katara said, sweetly.
There was a long pause.
Pakku tried. Zuko could see it. But then he just couldn’t help but open his mouth again. “But, Katara, you drank the contraceptive tea, right, because—”
“Pakku.” And Zuko’s day had just suddenly gotten worse, because right behind him, also fully naked and clearly intending to join the family group, was Hakoda. And the only open spot… was right next to Zuko.
Zuko gave serious consideration to just drowning himself right there.
**
That night, Zuko was sitting in Hakoda’s new house, at the table, waiting for dinner. The large, circular house served as a central spot for the family — all the meals were here and it was where a lot of time was spent in the winter or in the evenings, with space in the central room around the fire for everyone to sit, to carve, to sew, or to read. The smaller huts around it, for Sokka and Suki, for Kanna and Pakku, and Katara, were primarily for sleeping and privacy. The huts formed almost a little family community within the larger village, reminding Zuko just a little of the various family suites within the royal palace – albeit Katara’s cozy little hut was about the size of his bathroom.
Sokka came out of the kitchen and settled down in the seat next to Zuko. He looked over at the Water Tribe man. They had a moment of privacy, their first all day – everyone else was fussing with dinner.
“You knew,” Zuko said, calmly and seriously. It still felt so profoundly earth-shattering to know that his most precious secret had, actually, not been secret at all. And that Sokka, who in so many ways had been his first real friend, the first guy his own age he’d ever been able to really talk to, had known. And never said a word. “All these years. That Katara and I—”
Sokka’s easy smile flattened into a hard line. “Yeah. That the two of you were ridiculously into each other — I mean, I don’t want to burst your bubble, but everyone knew. Pretty sure even Appa was rolling his eyes a few times about just how bad the two of you were about just saying what the hell you wanted. A few times Toph and I tried knocking you into her, because we were hoping that eventually you might just give in to magnetic forces and just kiss each other if we got you into proximity, but no luck. Believe me, all the suppressed attraction on Ember Island was painful to be around.”
Zuko stared. “But you never said anything to me.”
“Man, you are my best buddy. I would absolutely kill someone for you. But Katara is my sister, and this was her choice. If she was making dumb choices, it still wasn’t my place to step in.”
“But you spent months getting me here, without even tipping her off—”
Sokka shrugged, made a little pft sound, as if somehow that didn’t even count. “Oh, well, that. It was still her choice. I just wanted to make sure that she had all the options in front of her.” Then his face got very serious again. “Also, I fucking hate Noack.”
Hakoda walked in, carrying a large bowl of something that smelled pretty good. He made a disgusted face. “Ugh. Noack. Why are we even talking about him?”
Behind him came Pakka, with a serving platter covered in some kind of meat skewers, still sizzling. “We’re talking about Noack?” His face turned glum and sad. “My finest student. The best Northern bender of his whole generation. I can’t believe that Katara picked the firebender” he shot an extremely nasty look at Zuko, “over Noack.”
Hakoda snorted. “I don’t care if Noack can bend the whole damn bay, Pakku. Even Zuko is a better option.” He punctuated that with a long glare, which left no doubts at all that Noack was the worst choice, Zuko marginally less awful, and somewhere above them both was a polar-bear dog.
Zuko knew that his own family situation was not exactly much to brag about, but he just looked at the two men and shook his head. “I’m sitting right here, guys.” Staying with Katara in her hut was amazing, and definitely a total dream come true. Spending this much quality time with Pakku and Hakoda was a bit more on the nightmare side.
“Yes. In my house. I know.” Hakoda was so, so grim.
Sokka leaned over the table and yelled, loudly, “Can someone else come out of the kitchen, please? The conversation is getting uncomfortable, again! I need more help to diffuse the tension!”
**
Zuko’s ship remained tied up at dock for the next week, and he didn’t care a bit as he found himself profoundly lingering in the village. He didn’t bring up the subject of the future to Katara, and she didn’t seem inclined to talk about it either – instead they just both found a profound bliss in focusing on the here and now, spending their days together. Long walks, a few chores, and a whole lot of time spent in bed together.
The village itself was still solidly in celebration mode – the Spring Gift moon had resulted in three new engagements, and Zuko found himself helping out with the rest of the village in building the homes for the new couples. While he doubted that anyone in the Fire Nation would ever be fully comfortable in Wolf Cove, with too many scars and graves between them, clearly the Water Tribe members spent most of the first morning of his visit carving out a small exception for him, personally. Wherever he went, there were mutters of, “Oh, that’s Katara’s firebender – he seems nice. Heard he saved her life, so I suppose Hakoda is just going to have to deal with it.”
As the days slid by, and the nights, Zuko wrapped himself around Katara and knew that, at some point, time would run out and they’d need to have the conversation that they’d both been avoiding with great determination.
He hadn’t been expecting that Aang would be the one to get that conversation going.
**
On Zuko’s eighth day in Wolf Cove, five days after he was supposed to have gotten on his ship and gone home, the familiar shape of Appa appeared on the horizon, and Aang rolled into town.
In truth, Zuko hadn’t even considered yet how exactly he was going to break the current situation to Aang – that was one of those things that, like so many others, Zuko and Katara had just dealt with by ignoring and having a bit more sex. Zuko had thoroughly been enjoying that particular coping mechanism.
But now, in front of them, was Aang.
Who, rather than finding Katara dealing with the aftereffects of heavy, stupefying narcotics, had found her extremely aware, fit, and clearly having enjoyed a successful Spring Moon celebration. Oh, and also Zuko, who could not have been more obviously her partner in the blessing had he pinned a sign to his shirt.
The first ten minutes were spent almost entirely in Aang struggling to wrap his brain around the basic facts of the situation. There was a lot of What? How could you? With Zuko? Zuko, how could you?
Standing there, watching Aang go through what appeared to be the five stages of grief, concurrently, Zuko was surprised at how… completely unashamed he felt. Honestly, he would’ve expected to feel very wracked with guilt, but, actually, he felt…
Kind of fine. More than fine, actually.
A glance at Katara showed that she was just watching Aang, her mouth tight-lipped and an expression of deeply-worn toleration on her face, but also a distinct lack of guilt or regret.
Aang was yelling about loyalty. And betrayal. And… okay, Zuko was starting to tune him out.
“Aang,” Katara said, firmly. “We broke up a year ago. This doesn’t actually have anything to do with you.”
“We were on a break—”
“No, we weren’t.” Her voice was brooking absolutely no shenanigans. How exactly the two of them had dated for so long when she took that particularly mom tone with him so easily was honestly a mystery for the ages. “I broke up with you. This isn’t something that requires consensus, or a quorum, or even agreement. I broke up with you, therefore we are broken up. We can see other people, or no one, but we don’t make decisions together anymore, and you don’t get to judge my choices or fly in and yell at me. That’s what broken up means.”
That clearly wasn’t what Aang had been hoping for, and he went off again. Katara just stood there, watching him with a shuttered expression on her face. Just off to the side, Zuko noticed that Hakoda and Sokka had positioned themselves carefully – not interfering, not adding commentary, but very, very present.
Aang was going off again, finding some other tangent, but Katara cut him off again. “No. Aang, Zuko came here and helped me with the Spring Gift ritual. So if you want to hang around and catch up with everyone, you know that you’re welcome. But if you’re going to just stand here and yell, then I guess Dad is going to have to kick you out of the village. Again.”
There was no mistaking the expression on Hakoda’s face – that was a man who was dearly hoping that Aang picked the second option.
Abruptly, Aang wheeled around and looked at Zuko – his gray eyes wide. “Did she even tell you, Zuko?” Aang yelled, his lip curling into a sneer. “This blessing is for strong water babies. Not other elements! Water babies.”
Zuko just stared. He could see from the expressions on Katara, and Hakoda and Sokka — this was it. This had been the straw that broke the polar-camel’s back, the thing that had finally made Katara, who never gave up on anything, tell Aang that it was over.
This.
He could feel rage boiling inside him, his hands almost shivering at his body’s natural desire to excise the anger by setting shit on fire.
THIS.
Zuko wasn’t fully conscious of moving, but he was in Aang’s face now, and he could see a quick flicker of caution as the other man made a quick reassessment of the situation. But Zuko didn’t give a shit about that, because all he could think of was that look on Katara’s face. “That’s why you guys broke up?” Aang had been yelling, but Zuko went straight to a full bellow. “You didn’t want a waterbending child? That is so fucked, Aang! Katara is a waterbender, you have to know that it’s pretty likely that being with her would mean—”
“I’m the last airbender, Zuko! It’s my whole duty to rebuild an entire population—”
“But you don’t get to just pick what your kids are, Aang! You can’t just get airbenders! It doesn’t work like that!”
Aang laughed nastily, and it sounded completely wrong coming from him, a foreign sound that shouldn’t even have been coming from his body. Zuko had seen Aang a handful of times over the last few years, read a few letters – he knew that part of Aang would always be fairly lighthearted, but he’d also known that he had grown up a lot in the last few years, and that thirteen to eighteen was a long path. But the part of Zuko that had been Aang’s teacher, his friend, and the one who had watched the dragons dance with him – that part hurt a bit to hear Aang laugh quite that cynically.
“Right,” Aang spat out, “because the Fire Lord would be fine with waterbending heirs.”
You never think these things through, Iroh had said to Zuko once – well, why the fuck should he start doing that now?
“Yes!” Zuko yelled – the word falling out of his mouth without even any input at all from his brain. “If I had a kid with her, do you think I’d be doing anything except thanking Agni every day ON MY KNEES that somehow I got that lucky?”
There was a silence.
Then, behind him, Katara’s soft voice. “Zuko.”
He turned – her eyes were wide, and she was looking straight at him, not even glancing at Aang at all, or seeming to care that Aang was talking again already – it didn’t matter. Neither of them were even listening to him. “Zuko, do you mean that?”
No one else mattered in that moment. Actually, it was possible that Aang had started yelling again, but Zuko didn’t care. He was just looking at Katara, at that incredibly soft, vulnerable expression on her face – and that flicker of both wonder and hope that reminded him of when she’d first looked at him during the Spring Gift choice.
Zuko’s thoughts had finally caught up to his mouth. “Yes,” and he heard the certainty in his voice. “I don’t care what it looks like. I don’t care what it takes. We can call it a love match, a political marriage, whatever. We can have all waterbenders, no benders, no babies at all. Let the Fire Sages dig up some fourth cousin to be my heir. All I want is you.” The truth of it echoed all the way inside of him, to where his fire burned inside him, the root of his primal element, and he could feel it flare. He walked forward, wrapped his arms around her, and leaned down slowly to press his forehead against hers. “Just be mine,” he whispered, staring into her eyes. “Let me be yours. We saved the whole world. We can figure this part out.”
She never wavered or glanced away. “Together.”
“Exactly.”
“Okay.” Easy, simple, as if that was all they’d ever really needed. And then she lifted up, just a little, and brushed her mouth against his. Lightly. Like a promise.
There was a small, scuffling sound behind them, then Sokka’s voice asking, “Hey, is this an engagement?”
Zuko pulled back just far enough to ask her, “Do you want to be engaged to me, Katara?”
He already knew the answer, but that didn’t stop him from smiling so hard that his face hurt when she just nodded, firmly. “Yes.”
“Me too. So, yes.”
Then Zuko and Katara were kissing again, and he barely even registered it when Sokka gave an incredibly loud whooping sound, then yelled, “That’s the fourth engagement this week! You know what that means? We broke the village record!”
The sound of running feet, and then Sokka was pumping his fist and yelling, “Feast! Feast!” And everyone he passed picked up the chant as well, until the whole village was running around the central gathering fire, cheering, laughing, and echoing – “Feast! Feast!”
Aang just sat on his ass in the dirt, his jaw hanging open as he watched everyone running around. Sokka spent a lot of time sparring with Suki, who had learned a few tricks from Ty Lee, and the Water Tribe man had not been in the mood to let Aang interrupt a clearly impending proposal.
Master Pakku walked slowly out of his hut, nodded curtly to Hakoda, then leaned over and gave Aang a small, entirely perfunctory pat on the back. In the doorway of her home, having watched everything unfold with great interest, Kanna gave Pakku a very pleased nod – the kind that clearly said that she appreciated that he was at least going through the motions of being nice, and this was a man who was going to get extremely, thoroughly laid later to reward the effort.
Meanwhile, Zuko and Katara stayed right where they were, still kissing.
**
Two days later they got onto Zuko’s ship together, and sailed back to the Fire Nation.
As it turned out, Zuko had gotten to eat festival food, after all.