concoursec | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Character(s): Katara, Zuko
Location: Zuko's dormitory
Rating: PG?
Open/Closed/Finished: Closed
Summary: After attending the Masquerade Ball for a short period, Katara decides she can't have fun at the dance due to Toph's disappearance and instead heads back to her dorm to mope. She then gets the bright idea of visiting the kittens to distract her, and thus pays a visit to Zuko's dorm.

It was the night of the Masquerade Ball-- and while Katara had attended the dance for a brief period in the beginning as she had already prepared a costume for the event, her mood didn't lift much for her to enjoy the ball. Toph's sudden disappearance had greatly dampened her spirits and after only an hour of idle chatter with friends and staying on the sidelines as others enjoyed themselves, Katara excused herself and headed back to her dorm.

Her friend's missing state had been noted when she tried to find Toph just a couple of days before, noting how the Earthbender had missed all the classes they shared. The healer had wondered if the smaller girl had gotten sick, and maternal instincts automatically kicking up, she visited her friend's dorm day after day in hopes of finding out what was wrong. But after the constant lack of replies despite her incessant knocking and calling, Katara assumed the worst.

While all Katara wanted to do was curl up in her bed and lament the disappearance of Toph, she still had the responsibilities of taking care of the kittens on top of the hatched Chicobo that both she and Zuko had been assigned to look over. The little bird was now nestled in its makeshift nest on her desk, its large beady eyes watching Katara curiously as she removed her intricate costume and face-paint to change into a comfortable set of sweats.

Removing the jug of milk from the ice she had encased it in, Katara prepared to leave her dorm when a sudden string of alarmed 'kwehs' called out to her. Curious, she turned to her desk where the Chicobo had hopped out of its nest, its neck craned towards Katara while flapping its wings, obviously trying to catch her attention.

"Want to come with me to feed the kittens?" Katara cooed softly, holding a hand out for the Chicobo to hop into. The small bird let out a happy 'kweh!' before settling into her palm. The gesture caused Katara to give a small smile, and with both Chicobo and the jug of milk in hand, she made her way out of her dorm and in the direction of the boys' wing.

It didn't take her long to reach Zuko's room. With both hands occupied, Katara tapped her toes against the metal door to try and catch the occupant's attention. Surely he wasn't actually attending the ball, was he? She hadn't seen him in the brief time she had been in the ballroom, but then again she couldn't recognize most of the cadets due to the masks they all wore. Katara couldn't quite imagine the Firebender dressed in any sort of costume, face masked as he tried to dance with the numerous female cadets who would no doubt be attending the event. The thought had her bristling slightly for reasons unknown and she gave the door a particularly hard kick, growing impatient.

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Zuko fell silent, watching her play with the kitten as it batted at her fingers.

"...You going to tell me what's wrong?" he finally asked as the silence dragged between them, eyes lifting to glimpse her expression.

His question had Katara freezing momentarily; was she that easy to read? Or worse, did Zuko just know her that well? The latter thought had Katara feeling slightly uncomfortable, to know that her once-enemy and now sort-of-enemy-sort-of-ally could pick up on her moods.

She debated with herself for a while, wondering if she should tell him what had been weighing on her mind. What good would it do? But then again, maybe it would be better to say it all out loud, and have someone listen. Silence stretched between them for several long moments before finally she spoke, the reluctance obvious in her tone.

"... Toph's gone."

For once in his life ... Zuko actually kept his foot out of his mouth. He had been so close to asking, 'who?' but kept his mouth shut, instead responding with, "I see..."

Another moment of silence. Toph had been one of her closest friends from what he could remember of the earthbender.

"...Sorry." He didn't look up when he voiced the apology; he kept his eyes lowered to the one kitten who slept soundly against his calve, purring.

"Yeah," She answered halfheartedly, eyes still fixated on the happy kitten batting at her fingers. "Me too."

Silence blanketed over them, the air more uncomfortable than usual as a result of her words. She saw her vision begin to blur, and belatedly realized with much embarrassment that she was actually tearing up, and in front of Zuko no less. She hastily tried to wipe her eyes as discreetly as possible with the sleeve of her hoodie, a sniffle pressed to the thick fabric to try and hide the sound.

Edited 2010-11-02 12:28 (UTC)

Was she...? Oh... oh, Spirits, she was...

Zuko tried not to grimace, tried to pretend he hadn't noticed. She was crying - what the hell was he supposed to do with her?

"Don't cry--" was his automatic response, tawny-gold eyes looking over at her. There was a hint of despair in his tone, desperation -- really, what was he supposed to do with a crying girl?

He'd never had to deal with one; Azula never cried, always lied. When she did cry it was fake tears and fake sobs, mostly to garner attention from those around her.

His verbal acknowledgment of her tears only yielded the opposite effect Zuko had hoped for. Another sniffle escaped followed by a second before a string of them trailed afterwards, the tears she tried to blink and wipe away now trailing down her cheeks.

How embarrassing, to be seen crying by Zuko of all people!

But she couldn't stop, try as she might. A hiccup managed to break it's way through her silent tears, and in an attempt to stop her crying Katara buried her face into her hands, the fabric of her hoodie bunched into her palms to stiffle her sounds.

Edited 2010-11-02 12:46 (UTC)

Zuko felt the blood quickly drain from his face and he hastily scrambled to try and find her a tissue or something. It was painful to witness, the almighty waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe reduced to tears and hiccuping sobs. But everyone had their breaking point.

Carefully putting the kittens aside he leapt up to grab the box of tissues off on the table and had to be careful where he stepped, the kittens following him, curious as to why he'd moved as fast as he had. He knelt down next to Katara then, uncomfortable, awkward, and offered up the tissues for her to take.

Zuko reached across her to nudge the saucer off to the side, the kittens distracted by the movement and moving towards it for some more of their meal.

Why wasn't she crying to the Avatar about this? Why had she come to him of all people?

Zuko gently nudged her arm, unconsciously seated right next to her. "Here..."

Edited 2010-11-02 13:08 (UTC)

It's not as though Katara had planned to have a sobfest in Zuko's dorm, but it seemed as though being with Zuko always brought some odd twist of events, things never turning out the way she initially planned.

Katara hastily grabbed a couple of tissues from the box offered and dabbed her eyes, and once she felt as though her voice wasn't so thick with tears, she mumbled a soft 'Thanks,' before pulling her knees up to her chest, fingers tapping the floor to try and catch some of the kittens attention. That was what she had originally came here for, wasn't it? To play with the kittens, try and distract herself from Toph's disappearance, the doubt of the foreign world that weighed down on her shoulders once again, the worry that coursed through her veins.

It was weird… to be sitting right next to her, to feel the warmth of her body next to him; he felt more than awkward but at the same time, Zuko felt comfortable. He lowered himself down so he was sitting completely on the ground and stretched out a leg; the other brought in towards his body and bent at the knee where he rested his arm on. He watched as the kittens batted at Katara’s fingers and then pulled out another leaf of tissue, waving it around over top of them.

The silence dragged again between them.

“…So uh. What are you going to do now?” His arm accidentally brushed against hers as he twirled the tissue overhead of the kittens. “It isn’t like you’re alone; you still have your brother and the Avatar.” And me...

Katara lowered her chin onto her knees, unable to meet his gaze with his question. What was she going to do? She had felt a similar torrent of emotions when Jet had suddenly disappeared, but the fact that it was Toph who was now gone had her emotions magnified. She was supposed to be taking care of everyone, even in this new world; could this have been avoided if she had been keeping a closer watch on the Earthbender?

"I... don't know," Katara answered honestly, eyes still fixated on the kitten that now had her fingers trapped between its paws. "I know I'm not alone, but what happens if everyone else starts to disappear too? When it happened with Jet, I didn't think that it would keep happening to people. How do we know if they returned home? I mean, we got here because of the Time Compression; what if they've been taken somewhere completely different again?"

There were so many questions she worried over, all of them without an answer that anyone could provide.

“Well… sitting here crying about it won’t make things any easier.” Zuko frowned and released the tissue so that it fell to cover the kitten who instantly spazzed and tried fervently bat and claw at it with a squeaking little ‘meow!’.

It was the blunt and honest truth. There was really nothing else he had to add to it either.

His frown deepened. “And if everyone else disappears then I guess you’re stuck with me.” Good one, Zuko. “Wh-which isn’t all that bad… I guess…”

She let out a sound that sounded very much like 'hmph' at Zuko's words, even if she knew that he was right. Crying wouldn't change anything that happened or anything that would happen, but it didn't mean that it didn't help somewhat, to at least let a little weight fall from her shoulders with her tears.

His latter words surprised her though; she hadn't expected him to say something like that. Immediately her blue eyes snapped up to glance over at Zuko, brows furrowed. She stared at him for several long moments, as if trying to decipher something. It had been months since they'd arrived to this world, months since their initial fight; in fact, it had been weeks since the last time she could remember fighting with him. Arguing, of course, was a given with their opposing elements. But somewhere along the way, it seemed like her initial loathing towards Zuko had slowly faded, something else replacing the emotion, something she couldn't define.

"Are we friends?" Katara blurted out then. Realizing what she had just said though, she immediately flushed scarlet and tried to rephrase her question. "I-- I mean, aren't we supposed to be enemies?"

Which was true-- the moment he had found her when they arrived, they had wound up in a fight that nearly tore apart the lobby of Garden. Who would have thought that the two of them would be sitting in his dorm together, so many months later, playing with kittens rather than trying to kill one another? It was something she couldn't quite wrap her mind around, endlessly confusing her.

Zuko wasn’t exactly sure why she was staring at him like that, but it was really beginning to make him fidget and feel really uncomfortable now. He met her gaze, of course, his own brows furrowing. He didn’t understand what was going through her mind in that moment; he would have liked to know, especially with the way her eyes searched his and roamed his features. His own gaze did the same, the level of scrutiny she was giving him making him swallow audibly past the odd lump in his throat.

“Wh-what?” Her question caught him off-guard. Now he openly gaped at her before shaking his head and rubbing at the back of his neck. “I thought we were— I mean I thought we were enemies… but I… and then we… y-you—”

His words trailed off into silence and Zuko found himself averting his eyes to the side, frowning.

They were supposed to be enemies; his nation and his family had done so much to her tribes, eradicated most of the waterbenders save for her from her own tribe, while the Northern Water Tribe still carried on with their men as waterbenders and their women as healers. After all that his family had done to her tribes… Zuko still wondered why she hadn’t tried to kill him in his sleep by now.

Another matter was his feelings and how strange they felt. How they left him oddly confused and horribly tongue-tied around her.

His flustered answer only caused the crease in her brow to deepen. What was he trying to get at? Katara couldn't really follow long with whatever point he was trying to make with the way he was sputtering for an answer. But maintaining eye contact with him wasn't helping matters; in fact, the way his tawny gold eyes looked at her was a bit unnerving, and she had to avert her gaze back down to the kitten before she could speak.

"Then 'we' what?" She asked, trying to sound nonchalant about it-- but really, Katara was curious. What did Zuko think about whatever this... thing was? It wasn't quite a hostile sort of enemy relation, yet it wasn't exactly friendship either. Katara still had yet to trust him as he hadn't really done anything to win her over... but then again, was he even trying to? She didn't know what was going on anymore.

Zuko shook his head, keeping his own gaze downcast. He wasn’t going to answer that. Instead, he answered her with, “We’re… we’re friends… Aren’t we?”

Mentally he scrambled around for a more appropriate response, fumbling, failing, and then, “I mean— you’re hardly my enemy anymore, Katara…”

Friends. Were they friends? Their dynamic was so much different from the friendships she held with other people; was this odd 'relationship' that they shared really one that could be labeled as friendship?

As always when she was in a moment of doubt, Katara lifted her hand to brush against her collarbone, an instinctive action even though the particular piece of jewelry had been missing for quite some time now. In fact...

"Friends don't take things important to other friends and not give them back," Her voice was deadpanned as she looked at him with a doubtful expression. "And how can I trust you? You haven't given me any reason to trust you."

His expression dropped, jaw nearly going slack. How could he have forgotten about her necklace, all this time? “The last time you slept in the spare room— I could have easily gone in there and…” But he didn’t finish, instead scowled irritably and pushed himself up, stalking over to where his room sat.

The light filtered out of the doorway and he jerked open the nightstand drawer to retrieve the blue silk and bone pendant necklace, storming back out of the room towards her. Down he stopped to his haunches in front of her, holding the necklace out in the center of his palm for her to take.

“Here.”

Well-- that was a lot easier than she expected. Katara had thought that Zuko would either deny that he still possessed her necklace, or taunt her about it all over again. But to see her prized possession sitting in his palm, dark blue and silver against alabaster skin... it took her a moment to snap out of whatever trance that had suddenly come over her, and carefully she reached out to retrieve the necklace.

Katara couldn't help but smile; to have the necklace back in her possession especially when she felt so emotionally drained due to all the worries and doubts that had plagued her mind was a huge comfort to her. The weight of the pendant in her hand seemed to take away some of the burden on her own shoulders, and she lifted the piece of jewelry by the silk to examine it all over again, as if she hadn't done the a hundred times before.

"Thanks," She murmured softly, sounding sincere for once.

The kittens seemed to be just as entranced by the necklace as the waterbender. One of the kittens had even attempted to bat at the pendant that hung low on the piece of silk ribbon, and mildly amused by the kittens antics, Katara taunted the small creature by holding it just outside of its reach. Several other kittens began to crowd around her now, all of them suddenly occupied by the task of trying to bat at the pendant.

Ignoring the way her short nails and the tips of her fingers grazed along the inside of his palm, Zuko sat back in front of her, watching her and then watching how the kittens all tried to crowd around. It amused him to see that she was using her necklace as a toy for them, and shook his head. “After all that… you’re going to use it as a cat toy. Unbelievable.”

He made a vague gesture to her throat. “Do you uh need any help putting it on?”

She immediately froze at his question, eyes snapping up to stare at him with a shocked expression. It took her a minute, but she eventually relaxed; of course he couldn't know the implications of his question. He wasn't familiar with Water Tribe customs, after all-- the was no way he could know that the gesture was a sign of proposal.

Katara shook her head then, momentarily distracted when one of the kittens became frustrated enough to try and pounce at the pendant, but Katara could lifted it higher out of its reach, giggling. "No-- I can do it myself."

And she did, her hands first reaching around to gather her thick mane of brunette waves over a shoulder before encircling her neck with the ribbon, securing it with just a bit of difficulty.

For a brief moment Zuko thought he’d said something wrong with the look she’d given him and how visibly tense she’d gotten. He relaxed, however, when she laughed, the sound of it giving cause for the corners of his lips to curve upwards ever so slightly. And sure enough … she’d gotten it on without too much trouble.

“I don’t see what’s so funny…” He leaned back on a hand and winced as one of the kittens turned to try to climb up his side, baby kitten nails digging into his waist to pull itself up onto his stomach.

Without the necklace to entertain the kittens now, Katara resorted to using her fingers to catch their attention, playfully tapping a couple of kittens on the nose. The reacted by trying to bat at her fingers, some even rolling onto their backs to try and fend off her fingers with all four paws. Their antics had Katara giggling all over again, and she moved her other hand to give another nearby kitten the same treatment.

"Don't you think the kittens are funny?" She asked innocently.

Her laughter drew his attention back to her again, the kitten on his stomach kneading at his shirt forgotten, even as it walked in circles a few times and settled into a little ball of fur at his navel.

"Sometimes," Zuko answered cautiously, "they can be entertaining... sure..."

Still he continued to watch her, a small tug in his chest.

"That doesn't sound very convincing," Katara commented offhandedly, a smile still curving her lips with how the kittens continued with their attempts to bat her fingers away. The others had begun to try and climb up the leg of her pants, causing Katara to laugh some more.

"If you ever get bored of them, I wouldn't mind taking them off your hand." She was making small cooing noises at the kittens now as her fingers brushed over their tummies, giggling all the more when they wriggled beneath her and tried to fend her fingers off.

Such open laughter... it tugged at his chest again. To see her laughing so easily and freely while sitting with him and the kittens, it left a strange feeling in his chest and yet made him oddly... happy. Relaxed.

Growing up Zuko had never had many friends. As prince to the Fire Nation, his only friend had been his mother. Azula's little posse, Mai and Ty Lee, never counted. Was this what friendship was supposed to be like?

A smile tugged at his lips and he allowed it to show, briefly. "You've been saying that ever since I found them," he pointed out, reaching down to teasingly tug on Boots' tail.