concoursec | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(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 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.

"And the offer still stands," Katara replied, tickling the nose of one kitten now. "They're so adorable-- and I still don't get how you let Sokka keep one of them." Was that a hint of jealousy in her tone?

With how she was leaning over slightly to play with one of the kittens, her long, wavy hair had fell over a shoulder to dangle above the other set of kittens-- easily amused as they are, they began to try and bat at her chocolate colored locks, swinging their paws and letting out tiny mewls of frustration. Giggles bubbled from the waterbender again; they were funny little creatures, weren't they?

Without thinking Zuko reached over to twine a lock of her hair around a finger, swirling it around and around overhead of the kittens, watching how its head moved with the motions of the hair above it until giving a pitiful little mewl. It twisted off of its back and went to run around Katara, hiding as though the hair had scared it.

"Your brother was pretty set on taking it." Zuko shrugged.

Katara felt the light tug of his fingers twining in her hair, and the action surprised her-- immediately her eyes shot up to look up at Zuko, but seeing how he was simply playing with the kittens, she didn't make any mention of it. That's all it was, wasn't it? A means to entertain the little furballs.

Seeing how the kitten had suddenly ran off behind her, Katara let out a laugh before twisting this way and that, trying to find the little creature to coax it back around to play.

"What would you do if I tried to take one of the kittens, then?"

He'd released her hair so she didn't hurt herself with all the twisting around and watched her search for the kitten behind her who was playing hide and seek with her.

"You already have the chicobo."

"Well, that's just one Chicobo. You have five kittens!"

The kitten was a fast little thing; every time Katara turned one way, the creature would dash the other way and hide again. Once she turned the other way, the kitten would dart out of sight with amazing stealth. Rather than becoming frustrated though, Katara simply laughed, thoroughly amused by the kitten's antics.

"Only because they have nowhere else to go!" he countered, brows knitting.

He wasn't going to admit that he was only keeping them to feel less alone. She wouldn't understand; she had both the Avatar and her brother to keep her company. Even with Toph now gone, Katara wasn't alone. And his friendship with Sokka was still something new and strange to him, the entire concept of 'friendship'... so unfamiliar...

"Well, I'm telling you that I'll take them if you don't want them!" She countered his counter.

Katara had turned then abruptly changed her direction, catching the black kitten just as it tried to run around her knee. Grinning, she picked up the kitten around the middle with both hands and held it up despite the mewing protests.

"What about this one? Can I keep it?"

Katara was holding up the Katara kitten. Why would she want the kitten he'd named after her? The last time she'd been stuck in his room for the night in the spare dorm room, Katara had taken that same kitten to sleep with her only to have Boots instead because the Katara kitten had found her way back into Zuko's room.

Zuko frowned. "...No."

Katara pouted before setting the distraught kitten back onto the floor; as soon as its paws touched the ground, Kitten Katara immediately turned to run towards Zuko, claws latching into his sweatpants to climb up his leg.

"Katara seems to like you a lot," She observed as another kitten curiously made its way towards her, mewing for her attention.

"Yeah..." Still he continued to frown, pulling the Katara kitten up before she could really sink her kitten claws into his leg. "It's too bad her human counterpart doesn't either... really... I mean like me-- I mean being around me- agh, never mind."

Zuko fell silent, glaring down at the Katara kitten while she now tried to climb up the front of his torso.

Katara quirked a brow at Zuko as he fumbled for the right words, her hands idly stroking Boots' back. Did he really care that much about her opinion of him?

"Well..." She began cautiously, finding it difficult to continue while looking at him so instead she directed her gaze downwards, "I mean, you haven't been that bad to be around lately. I've been coming to your room every day and haven't gotten into a fight with you all this time."

He cared more than she could ever understand, but Zuko had always had a way with fumbling his words.

Katara's cautious tone had him glancing over. It's too bad she doesn't remember...

"That's a plus, yeah..."