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[burntsecrets]

Market Mischief

Pairing: Zuko x Katara Word Count: 820 Prompt: For Zutara Week 2024 | Day 6: Sweet @zutaraweek Warnings: Mild language, lighthearted teasing, humor, food-related themes, playful banter, minor romantic undertones

The marketplace buzzed with activity as vendors hawked their wares, carts rattled, and children darted through the throngs like mischievous sparrows. Katara weaved through the crowd with practiced ease, her arms laden with an assortment of ingredients for dinner. Zuko followed behind, his expression tight as he kept glancing over his shoulder, as though expecting a surprise ambush from a cabbage merchant.

“I still don’t get why we’re here,” he muttered, adjusting the hood of his cloak to better conceal his face. “We could’ve just—”

“Don’t even finish that sentence,” Katara interrupted, shooting him a pointed glare over her shoulder. “If you think I’m letting you ‘firebend’ our dinner together, you’ve lost your mind.”

Zuko grumbled something under his breath, but his steps quickened to keep up with her. “I’m not bad at cooking.”

“You burned rice.”

“It was one time.”

“And toast.”

“It was...extra crispy.”

“And that pot of tea.”

“Okay, fine!” He threw his hands up. “But it’s not like you’re perfect either. You made soup that was so salty Sokka said he could see through time.”

Katara froze mid-step and spun to face him, a saccharine smile that promised retribution spreading across her face. “Oh, really? That’s how you want to play this?”

Zuko immediately backpedaled. “I’m just saying—”

“I’ll show you ‘just saying,’” she quipped, grabbing a bright red fruit from a nearby stand and shoving it into his hands. “Here. Let’s see if you can even pick a decent lychee.”

He stared at the fruit like it was a bomb about to go off. “What’s wrong with this one?”

“Too mushy. Try again.” She crossed her arms, one eyebrow raised.

Zuko frowned, muttering something suspiciously like, “It’s just fruit,” before exchanging the lychee for another. Katara didn’t even bother inspecting it before shaking her head.

“Still wrong.”

“Are you making this up?” His voice pitched slightly, somewhere between incredulous and irritated.

“Are you seriously questioning my superior market skills?” Katara smirked, taking the fruit from him and swapping it for one from a different pile. “This one’s ripe.”

Zuko squinted at her. “How do you even know that?”

She tapped the side of her head. “Water Tribe instincts.”

“Oh, so now it’s instincts?”

Katara turned on her heel, heading toward the next stall, but Zuko caught the faintest grin tugging at her lips. He scowled, speeding up to walk beside her again. “Fine. Since you’re so good at this, what’s next?”

She didn’t answer, distracted by a stand overflowing with delicate jars of candy. The vendor—a cheerful, round-faced woman—beamed at them as they approached. “Looking for something sweet, young lady?”

Katara nodded politely, her eyes scanning the colorful array. “Just browsing.”

Zuko, however, narrowed his eyes at the jars like they owed him money. “Isn’t this kind of a waste?”

“Excuse me?” Katara looked up sharply.

“I mean,” Zuko said, flailing slightly under her glare, “we’re here for dinner ingredients. Why bother with candy?”

“Why bother with candy?” Katara repeated, her tone somewhere between disbelief and the ominous calm before a tidal wave.

The vendor wisely stepped aside.

“Let me tell you something, Sparky.” Katara plucked a jar off the shelf, full of little sugar flowers, and held it under his nose. “Candy is joy in edible form. It’s a reward after a hard day. It’s the perfect combination of ‘I deserve this’ and ‘Don’t judge me.’ And you, Prince Pessimism, could use some joy in your life.”

Zuko blinked, momentarily stunned. Then his lips twitched, threatening to curve upward. “So…you’re saying I need to eat candy to be less miserable?”

“Exactly!” She thrust the jar into his hands. “Consider it therapy.”

He snorted, a sound so uncharacteristic Katara almost dropped the bag of rice she was holding. “Fine,” he said, unscrewing the jar and popping a sugar flower into his mouth. His expression immediately shifted to one of wide-eyed horror. “This is…this is…”

“Sweet?” Katara offered, biting back a laugh.

“No,” he croaked, clutching his throat dramatically. “This is…too much.” He doubled over, mock-gagging. “I’m dying.”

Katara finally let her laugh burst free, the sound ringing out above the chatter of the marketplace. “You’re such a baby. It’s sugar, Zuko.”

“It’s poison,” he deadpanned, though the corner of his mouth twitched again.

Katara grabbed a flower from the jar and popped it into her mouth. “Mmm. Delicious. Guess I’ll have to finish the whole jar myself.”

Zuko straightened, his eyes narrowing. “Not if I get to it first.” He swiped another candy, tossing it into his mouth with a smirk.

And just like that, the competition began. By the time they left the marketplace, the jar was empty, Katara was triumphantly clutching the last flower, and Zuko—now suspiciously energized—kept insisting he wasn’t going to help clean up the “disaster kitchen.”

“Sweet, huh?” he said, nudging her with his elbow as they headed back toward camp.

Katara rolled her eyes but smiled. “Yeah. Sweet.”

[scifrey]

FanFiction Spotlight #3: The Once and Future Kingdom

Fandom: Merlin, Stargate:Atlantis

Bio Eagle-eyed readers will notice the similarity between this title and that of one of my profic short stories. This title inspired the one for the short, but that's all that's similar.     

 This fic was written for one of the #SGA writing contests or bangs over on LiveJournal, though I don't remember which one.     

 When it comes to fanfiction stories, my brain really does prefer to come up with crossover fanfic - that is, the combining of two media texts in one tale.     Whatever I read or watch, I generally have this piece of my mind that spends the whole time ,making connections between this media text and others. I call it my Spider Web Brain. Humans recognize and construct patterns; that's part of why we're the dominant species on Earth.    

 Little clues and facts, little moments or lines, spin out of the original media text, and I scuttle along and collect them up and weave them into a dew-sparkled spiderweb that I then complete and repair with the filaments of my own imagination.     

 It's been a useful muscle to develop as a profic writer, because it's helped me to weave together mythologies and fairytales for the sake of worldbuilding, and it's helped me figure out how to link elements of my own stories together so the reader can Spider Web it themselves.    

 Fans of SGA will understand why, then, from the first moment I started watching Merlin, this tale started weaving itself in my mind. Looking back at it now, it's a bit rushed, and I certainly could have written another 30k words to really round out the tale. But I'm still quite pleased with how I wound together the mythologies and histories of the Legends of King Arthur, and the mythologies established in both Merlin and Stargate.     #

[the-storm-of-the-century]

You know....I should probably try and update things move often. I've been working on this story for over three years and it's not even halfway done.....whoops #writerwoes #writerwoesandjoys #writersofinstagram #fanfictionwritersitstimetodoyourwork #fanfiction #fanfictionwriter #fanfictionwriterproblems #fanfictionwritersofinstagram