#zutara month 2017

[the-badger-mole]

Matchmaker

I don't have a ton to say about this one. This was my sole contribution to Zutara Month 2017. The prompt was, obviously, Matchmaker. I remember originally wanting to make Katara and Zuko the target of matchmaking efforts- probably by Iroh- but then I thought about how meddlesome Katara could be, and I thought this idea was cuter. This is the first ever appearance of my OC, Lieutenant Xei. His second appearance was in my other story The Harbinger Bloom. I really like the idea of Toph ending up with someone more straightlaced than she is. I have some loose plans to flesh out Xei a bit, and expand on their relationship, but nothing concrete yet.

Read the story here

[iolaussharpe-24]

“Nah, he's the opposite for me. Top 3 worst obsessions. Only behind Tom Hiddleston and Adam Driver because there's HISTORY behind those.” Oh hell nah, what did he do?

Okay, let's get into a little bit of lore.

(This is just a sliver of everything. There's more.)

It was 2017. Both Thor Ragnarok and Kong: Skull Island were coming out and I saw the trailers to both back to back.

The realization hit me like a sledgehammer flung out of a catapult. I was excited, more than anything else, to see what happened to Loki after Thor: The Dark World. I didn't like Loki prior to that, at least, I didn't think I did. He didn't fit the mold of what I liked in a character. I tended to lean more towards the heroes. On the surface, at least.

So I stepped back and reevaluated everything I liked in movies and shows. I realized that I did lean towards villains more than I ever actually noticed. I also discovered that I love to draw and write around this time.

My first story was a hundred and fifty page Loki fanfiction that makes me cringe more than I would by sucking five lemons but you gotta start somewhere. And I didn't stop there. I was writing Loki stuff all the time. I was drawing him. Talking about him. Dreaming about him.

Then it branched out to Tom Hiddleston in anything and everything.

There were a few other obsessions along the way, Zuko, Dante Basco, Harry Potter, Sirius Black, Gary Oldman, Dracula, Remus Lupin, werewolves, Hannibal, etc., etc., but the Loki/Tom Hiddleston thing lasted YEARS until I developed a thing for Sebastian Stan instead. And that time felt longer than it actually was. It felt like an ETERNITY of my life was dedicated to him.

Breezing past a couple more hang ups, we reach the Adam Driver period. That was the next BIG one. That was the second atomic bomb. And it was by accident.

I was slowly being influenced by a number of funny things involving him that happened during lockdown (the John Oliver clips, and the Instagram lookalike) and I decided to add him to a PowerPoint I was making to brainwash people into liking the people I like. I didn't have much of a reason other than I like Star Wars and Kylo Ren was easily my favorite part of the last trilogy. (By the way, he still is. I've been a Reylo since the beginning because it gave me Zutara vibes and I ship that too.)

I went looking for a clip of him singing to put in the PowerPoint. I was gonna use the SNL Aladdin skit he was in, but I found "Stepping Back in Time" from the Annette soundtrack. The next thing I know, I have half the soundtrack downloaded and all my Sebastian Stan wallpaper and icons have been replaced by Adam Driver. It was that fast. And suddenly he's known throughout my family as "the new Loki".

Similar to how Tom Hiddleston pushed me to discover my love for writing, fanfiction, and villains, Adam Driver pushed me even further with it. I had started writing an original fiction story inspired by Sebastian Stan, but I had more ideas with Adam Driver as my muse. A lot more. That had the creativity flowing like crazy and I loved every minute of it.

Then I started having the dreams. Really weird dreams. Like that time I dreamt about Adam Driver being one of the aliens from Species and chasing me. Not even a male Species alien like Patrick. He looked like Sil and Eve with full tentacle nips and hair and it was terrifying. And I've talked about the Kylo Ren to insane asylum dream that made me legit worry about my mental health before.

I cut off all Adam Driver related anything for a month. And that's when I found Miguel O'Hara and he led me to Oscar Isaac.

Now there's a new "new Loki."

[awanderingmuse-fandom]

Monthly Writing and Reading Update

I did say updates come around the first(ish) right? Cause it’s the first(ish). 

The Holidays are here and life has been accordingly hectic so I didn’t get a ton done. But I do have an (one) update... Which will now begin!

WRITING UPDATE

White Lotus Buds (Working Title)

This is a White Lotus!Zuko AU and a Blue Spirit AU and a Zuko joins the Gaang early AU. With lots of Zutara and lots of identity shenanigan's.

I wrote another chapter and a half on this during the past month. Not a ton of progress but I’ll take it.

READING UPDATE

Announcements! Announcements! Anno-unce-ments! I am abandoning this part of the update because I have made the decision to revive my fic-rec blog!!! Posts start on January 1st, and will definitely be weekly and might be daily. 

This blog will be multi-fandom. Though the formatting of posts going forward will change as I haven’t added anything to that blog since 2017. 

[iminaworldofpureimagination]

Since I was the anon I'll answer here. I was a zutara /selfzuko shipper in i guess 2008/2011 17-20s zuko fan and only interacted with my sib/youtube vids i didnt hate kataang/maiko I was annoyed with what the cliffhanger of what happened to ursa more than kataang being canon I think between 2017- 2018 i ventured into the atla tags and use to believe those zutara was robbed conspiracies. though i thought people got to harsh towards mai . rewatched prob in 2020 and it was super obvious to me at 30 that kataang was always going to bee canon since episode one. I did still ship zutara but i wasn't in denial that it was meant to be. joining the atla tumblr fandom was quite a .. unpleasant ride of angry zutara shippers who yelled at me whenever i defended mai/aang. Finding aang was a rapist soured me on zutara for months. I still see people throwing a dumb conspiracy about zutara beeing robbed i which gives off strong trump is meant to be pres vibes. they'll prob bee mad at at that comparison but they're the ones making up bullshit claims what ive seen is kataang shippers have annoyance towards zuko more than downright hate so i can navigate it.. there are takes i dont agree wih regarding zutara being a colonizer ship because zuko didnt colonieze thee water tribe. theres a stronger case for jin/zuko being a conloinzier ship but its fiction so i dont care. I dont caree at all about ships being healthy which is the why this fandom is very.. frustrating for me in general . some kataangs get a bit annoying with insisitng kataang is the only good ship. i ship azulaang/zukaang/kataang only one is healthy but i dont care its just what i enjoy. aang befriending azula is amazing to me . fandom would be way more fun if shipping wasn't some moral contest in general

I still ship zutara but the fanbase is just insane and disgusting to want to interact with outside of fanart

i'm really sorry :( i have friends who are zutara shippers, who also love aang and/or kataang. the fanbase has really soured their perceptions of zutara.

actually, if we're going to be truthful, when i was younger i was a multishipper. i circulated between having kataang, maiko, and yes, even zutara at one point in my life as my fave ships. when i finally watched atla for its entirety as an adult in 2020 (as a child i was obsessed with it, but i was only able to watch whatever episodes were airing on cable), kataang became my favourite ship. however, i only grew a stanch dislike for zutara after interacting and witnessing how terrible the fandom was, especially towards people who enjoyed characters like aang and mai or - god forbid - liked the canon ships.

every time i see a batshit take about aang, i can't help but think that not all zutara shippers have to agree with this perception, right? like where is it that they draw the line?

also maybe you can discuss the validity of this statement: as a zutara shipper do you find that it is easier to navigate kataang spaces while being a zuko fan, but it is harder to navigate zutara spaces while being an aang fan?

[zutara-ao3-feed]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar) Characters: Katara (Avatar), Zuko (Avatar), Aang (Avatar) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Painted Lady & Blue Spirit Series: Part 2 of Zutara Month 2017 Summary:

When being the silently dutiful girlfriend of the Avatar starts to chafe, Katara takes up the mantle of the Painted Lady once more and finds herself in the process.

[doodleladi]

Day 30 - Assassin

au zutara assassin duo with a hit list to bring down Ozai’s rule from the inside?? I certainly think so. 

also scariest fucking assassins ever oh my jesus.

@zutaramonth

[beanaroony]

Zutara Month - Lunar Eclipse

Zuko’s having dreams about what could/should be again...

[sweetprettygeek]

“With the whole world crumbling, we pick this time to fall in love.”

“Yeah. It’s pretty bad timing.”

[addictofreading]

Ohmygosh! It’s finally Zutara Month!! All my entries I made are in black and white manga format, partly because I need the practice for the comic I’m working on and partly because I had big aspirations for a ZK Month project that didn’t come to full fruition due to time constraints. What I have was a ton of fun to work and on, though. :D And I get to share a whole month of seeing new awesome Zutara creations!!! @___@

[thal-art]

Here, have some 20 something zutara!

(I don’t know if it follows any of the prompts but I wanted to participate this year lol)

[reii-ichi]

ZUTARA Month 2017

Day 4: enemies to lovers

[teenytraveler]

It’s december and I need to study hard and then I see that there is a Zutara month in DECEMBER??? WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME

oh   n o

[akaiikowrites]

they call you refugee pt. 4

Summary: “You are mine. Maybe I didn’t choose you then, but I choose you now. That changes everything.” Zuko goes into exile with a scar, a mission, and a wife. [Canon Divergence AU]

Notes: for @zutaramonth​ 2017, day twenty-two, regrets. one | two | three what’s this? hints of plot? as always, y’all’s responses humble me.

Sometimes—when he rolls her beneath him on their bed and kisses her slow, when she helps him bathe after a hard day of training, when they get so close it feels like she inhales and he exhales—it seems everything has changed. Most times it feels like nothing has. It’s that, more than anything, that makes him understand.

“Our marriage was always real,” he whispers against her throat. Nudging her fluttering pulse point with his nose, he listens to her gasp, feels her arch beneath him. “We made it real.”

Laughing breathlessly, she lifts her hands to his hair and runs her fingers through the short black strands. “You’re being sweet tonight,” she says. There’s a melting quality to her voice. Soft, like the honey Uncle puts in his tea sometimes. Everything about her centers him. Anchors him.

Zuko lets his head rest on her shoulder with a sigh. She keeps petting him and he drifts on the rhythm of her caresses. Tangled up in each other, sleep comes easy, and nightmares don’t find them.

Uncle sips from a cup of jasmine tea and watches as Zuko’s fire races over the deck in curling waves. “Very good, Zuko,” he calls. “Allow the fire to surge through you—yes, good!”

Solidifying his stance, Zuko sends another whip crack of fire at Kion. The other man is one of the few soldiers on the ship who is both young enough and strong enough to give him a proper challenge. Outside of the shadow of his sister, he’s mastered everything thrown at him with single minded efficiency.

Now the bout finishes as Kion raises a hand in defeat. Zuko drops his stance and reaches up to scrub a hand through his sweaty hair. Summer near the Earth Kingdom is just as humid as the Fire Nation. Worse, half the time. After exchanging the customary bows, Kion retreats for water and Zuko goes to Uncle for corrections.

“You are getting better at drawing your fire from the breath,” Uncle comments. “Have you been practicing?”

Candles had nearly scorched the ceiling last night as Katara pushed him down during meditation. She’d straddled his hips and grinned at him. Leaned down until her breath whispered against his own and said, kiss me. If his breath control was getting better it had nothing to do with meditation practice and everything to do with kissing Katara until they were both breathless.

“Yes,” Zuko says.

“Hmm.” Uncle eyes him in a way that means conversations Zuko would rather not have. “Katara still has not moved from your room.”

“No.”

And she wouldn’t be. The first night, after the giddy revelation of kissing, they’d stood by the bed not quite looking at each other. Finally Katara had admitted her back hurt and she wanted Zuko to use his heat to ease it. They’d curled together, his hands rubbing gentle circles at the small of her back, until they’d both drifted off. It had been no more or less than every night before.

“You are both...very young...” Uncle says. Diplomatically. “Allowances were made for the circumstances but now that you are both of age, rumors will spread.” They had already spread. Now they would simply grow teeth. It would require another year or so before everyone knew they were old enough to have consummated the marriage. But time was running out.

Setting his jaw, Zuko looked at his only remaining blood kin. “I am not the Crown Prince anymore,” he says. “Unless I find an Avatar who has been missing for a hundred years.” My mission is impossible, he thinks but does not say, I will never be Fire Lord.

When he is in Katara’s arms, he doesn’t know that he wants to be Fire Lord anymore.

Maybe Uncle hears his thoughts. “The Fire Nation will need you, Zuko. Your people will need you.” Some note of urgency carries through and makes the hair at the back of Zuko’s neck stand on end.

A sick feeling curls in his gut. “No,” he says. “No. Katara is my wife.” Before Uncle can say anything he pushes to his feet and gestures for another round. Three firebenders this time, masked and coordinated, and he beats them all. If the world will not stop trying to take Katara away, then Zuko will be stronger than the world to keep her by his side.

Their next port of call is a colony in the Earth Kingdom.

Pulling Katara away from her waterbending practice, he takes her hand in his and urges her into the market. The last few days she’s been quiet. Not quite sullen.  All he wants is to see her smile.

But everything he does seems to make her quieter. Placing his hand at the small of her back leads to her tugging away to look at some fruit. Teasing her about the fruit leads to her frowning and moving away to a stand with little glass necklaces that she’d never bother wearing. Zuko lets it go, even as his heart twists up inside his chest.

Instinct is strong though. When they pause to watch circus performers, he wraps his arms around her waist and puts his chin in her shoulder. Casually intimate the way they’ve been almost since the beginning. Only this time she goes stiff and tries to pull away.

“What’s wrong?” he asks.

Katara half turns in his arms, puts a hand to his chest like she’s not sure whether or not she wants to push him away. So he doesn’t let her go. Feels her fingers tangle in his shirt and that feels a victory.

“Not here,” she whispers.

The walk to the shop takes forever but at least she lets him hold her hand. Closing the door to their bedroom behind him, he crowds her toward the bed, until they can curl together like they always do. Pushing back the dark curls of her hair, he rubs his thumb along one sharp cheekbone. “What’s wrong?”

Katara leans into his touch while her eyes close. “I’m not a Fire Nation noble woman,” she says. There’s a terrible strength in her voice. It reminds him of that day in his father’s throne room. “And one day, you’re going to go back to the Fire Nation and you can’t take me with you.”

Growling, Zuko rolls atop her like he can hold her with him. “No,” he says. “We’re married. You chose me, Katara.”

“But you didn’t choose me,” she says. She blinks up at him and there it is. The crack in her queen’s composure. Just the slightest tremble to her lower lip before she stills it.

Agni, he doesn’t know how to tell her that she’s everything. Instead he takes her hand and presses it to his scar. After all these years she’s still the only one allowed to. Blue eyes meet his. Wide and watchful in the flickering candlelight. “I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he admits. Too quiet. Dragging the words out raw and offering them to her. “Maybe I go back to the Fire Nation. Maybe I spend my life in exile. I don’t know. But I choose you. I’ll fight to choose you.”

Zuko’s heart stutters in his chest when he sees the first smile in days. It lights up her eyes. “We fight together,” she says. Lets him feel the weight of those words settling over him. Then she tilts her head and says impishly, “Maybe I should start taking half the Agni Kais for you.”

During a break in firebending practice, Zuko feels slender arms slide around his shoulders. The scent of rain and girl fills his lungs. “Katara,” he says. Before he can ask why she’s come to this part of the ship, she presses a kiss to the edge of his scar.

“Uncle Iroh,” she says. Across the low table, Iroh blinks at them in bemusement. “I want to learn all the things you’ve been teaching Zuko. Diplomacy. Geography. History. You should add etiquette.” Now Zuko’s blinking too. “We can draw up a plan this afternoon.” Another kiss to Zuko’s scar and she’s gone.

They sit in silence for a few long moments. Finally Uncle chuckles and shakes his head. “I know when I am beaten. What a queen she will make.” Looking to Zuko, he adds, “I am glad you have had Katara. I am gladder you will continue to have her.”

In the end, Uncle’s blessing has never been necessary. Zuko is happy to have it anyway. And Katara, when he tells her the story later that night, is fiercely proud.

[artofjen]

“How would you like to help me put Azula in her place?”

“It would be my pleasure.”

[zukobender]

this was for zutara month day 20 — first kiss, but i got carried away and made it into a christmas edition. i just started doing digital art so yeah it's a little messy but hope you guys like it!

[asongstress1422]

Bride from the Water Tribe

Summary: Katara was taken to the Northern Water Tribe by her grandmother; she was to be protected at all cost, for she was the last of the Southern Water. Once they got there, the North refused to teach her trying to strip her of her worth and turn her into what they wanted, a calm biddable healer to birth the next generation. They failed. And so as punishment they sent her to be a political bride to the Fire Nation.

~*~*Posting for Day 8: Arranged Marriage of Zutara Month 2017 on AO3

The ship plowed through the sea, every lapping crash against the hull, an incessant knock to the waterbender hiding within. The Ocean called to Katara, challenging the woman to test herself against its power. For three weeks Katara had sat huddled in her cabin ignoring that call.

It was so much easier to control her urge to bend when she was on land. Being surrounded constantly by her element in such a powerful force was wearing on her. It would be over soon, though. The watchers had called the first sighting of the Fire Nation with the rising of the sun.

Her final destination was growing on the horizon with every minute.

A fist thudded gently against her door. It was Lee, one of the crewmen. They had had spent a lot of time together during the voyage. When the pull of the ocean got too strong to be ignored in her room she would find something to distract herself with. Usually helping in the kitchen or cleaning the Mess with Lee.

“Lady Katara,” He began respectfully with a smile. “The Chief wanted you. He was headed to the deck.”

“Thank you for coming to tell me, Lee. I will go see him.”

“If I don’t see you during unloading, just wanted to say it was a pleasure sailing with you, miss.” With a tug on his forelock he disappeared down the walk going about his duties to ready the ship for docking.

The wind picked at the hair she had taken to piling on the top of her head to overcome the heat of traveling in equator waters when she came through the hatchway. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the ocean. The sight of it a soothing balm and a dangerous temptation. She breathed in the scent of salt that saturated the air.

Gran-Gran, look what I can do!

The almost forgotten memory of childhood exuberance floated in the air, a painful memory of Before. Who could have predicted that those six little words would lead to this; twice exiled from her homeland and now on her way to the once hated enemy as a political pawn.

“Katara.” The strong bark snapped her head to the prow of the ship. Arnook stood regal in the blue robes, specially dyed silks to combat the heat of the Fire Lands, staring out at the growing land mass. She came to stand beside him. “Have you finished packing?”

‘There was little to pack.’ She thought spiteful. ‘You would not let me bring much, not even my own clothes.’ Her tribal wardrobe of soft furs and blue cloth had been stripped from her. Instead she was now forced to wear the embroidered red silk long robes with trailing sleeves of the fire nation. And they chalked it up to another expense she owed them.

She refrained from looking at the Chief of the Northern Tribe, afraid she would finally say what she wanted and ruin everything before its time. Instead she remained staring at the growing distinctions of the port and the people scurrying around. “Yes.”

“Very good. I trust you will be well behaved when we are greeted? We will want to make a good impression on the prince.” He wasn’t waiting for an answer, simply relishing in the power he now wielded over, her believing her cowed by her near execution.

Her hand fisted at her side, out of sight even if the man had acknowledge her presents with a glance. Her entire body tingled with the tug from the ocean surrounding them. The answering pull she had been suppressing for the last year was unraveling faster in its open presents.

Things would be better, she told herself, when they reached land and she was not constantly assaulted by the tantalizing urge to use her bending.

Nothing good had ever come of her bending. It had destroyed her life more than once and after the last time might have just succeeded in destroying her soul. That it still called to her was an evil omen.

And oh how it called to her.

In her mind she called up a wave, flooding the boat and tipping it. Sending it and the half dozen men on board, her belittlers for the last ten years, to the bottom of the ocean along with herself.

Three things stopped her: the still crisp memory of blood on the snow and the human-shaped, shredded parka laying there. The two dozen, innocent, crewmen sailing the vessel to its destination. And the knowledge that if the man beside her died prematurely her people would not survive the coming upheaval.

She hated him. For all the things he did to her and all the things he would continue to do with her. But it was not her decision to make on who lived and who died. She had made it once and it would haunt her for the rest of her days. Now she was just a tool, the decision not hers but one she would act on.

The ship docked.

“Chief Arnook of the Water Tribe.” A man in dark red robes and a tall hat marched down the docks, several less richly garbed men scurrying behind him. “We were not expecting you for another three days.” The man came to an abrupt stop a yard from the disembarking party and bowed, fisted hand pressed against an open palm. “Greetings from the Fire Nation.” The man straightened. “I am Mizushima. I will be your guide and see to settling you in the Fire Palace.”

“Greetings, Mizushima. We had favorable winds the last leg of our journey. Where are the Fire Lord and the Prince? Should they not be meeting their future daughter-in-law and bride?”

He said it to shame her. Everyone knew that this open bridal candidacy was a farce. It was truth that other nations were bringing girls along, possibly even filling their vapid minds with lies of a prince falling in love with them at first sight. But this was only a convoluted dance in this new world of peace.

The invitations were given to high ranking officials in both the Earth Kingdom and the Northern Tribe in a show of welcome and friendship. They were accepted in good faith and the prize of future trade agreements from the economic leader of nearly the last century. All but the most addled knew that the next Fire Lady would be just that, a fire lady.

Katara saw the sneer of disgust as the official looked her over, barely there and quickly hidden behind a mask of formality. “My Lady, your beauty will surely catch the prince's eye. Alas that won't be for yet another week.”

“A week?” Ulva questioned gruffly. A strong bender and renowned strategist, he was second in command on this campaign. The only good thing for him being here was that it kept him away from his wife and daughter.

“Yes, my lords.” Mizushima directed the men that had followed him to pick up the parties bags. Katara was able to fade into the background. “It’s a day after the last of the candidates are scheduled to arrive. We’re having an opening banquet to greet everyone. The Fire Lord and Prince will have very little time to socialize until then.”

One of the fire nation men offered to take her bag but she declined with a shake of her head and a soft smile. What little was left of her old lives was in the bag and she would not willingly part with it. Besides they had enough to carry from the rest of the luggage.

Mizushima organized everyone to follow him to waiting ‘carriages’, box like structures roped to glossy ostrich horses. She had seen them before when they had stopped briefly at one of the earth kingdom port cities early in their travels. It was where they had purchased her fire nation's robes, stripping her of the last external piece of her heritage.

She slipped into the last carriage with the servants and overflow luggage. It was cramped but she did not want to be stuck in the carriage with any of her party for the trip up to the palace.

“You are not the first candidates to arrive,” Mizushima informed when asked as he sat beside the blue and fur clad chief in the first carriage. “Three of the Earth girls and their families have settled. Also the eldest daughter of the Humira house. More will be arriving by the day.” He cast a sizing eye on Katara as she entered one of the latter carriages. “You’ve only brought one candidate.” Mizushima seemed to think there was some hidden slight in this.

“Yes. The other girls wailed at the prospect of being sent so far from home. She is strong.” Arnook smiled watching the girl also. “Some would say too strong. This will be good for her.” And he was killing three fish with one spear.

“These are your rooms, miss.” The woman was only a year or two older then the water tribe girl and was dressed in the coarse dull red and brown of a palace servant. “Are they to your standards?”

Katara looked across the space that was bigger than her entire home in the north. Polished wood floors and high ceilings gave the room an almost hollow feel. A sitting area was constructed with a plush red cloth covered bench that had arms and a high back, a knee high intricately carved table of darkwood, and two large chairs also covered in red cloth. The set of double doors on the right were open and through them a some sort of raise area, draped in more red. Sleeping quarters? “Yes. Thank you.”

The woman walked around the room pointing things out and setting miniscule things to right. “Until the ceremonies begin, meals will be served in your companion's great room. The quart yard through there is for visitors.” She gestured to the back walls of sunlit cream panels. “If you have need of anything this pulley here will call a servant.”

The maid looked at the dark skinned tribal girl before her and saw a heartbreaking mix of world weary and lost child. At least the those other bridal chits had their mamas and aunties looking out for them. This one seemed to be all alone with that group of men that pretended she didn’t exist. She paused, weighing her next words. “We will also check on you a few time.”

“Please do not go to any trouble on my account. I will be fine.”

“No trouble, miss.”

“Th-thank you.” The amount of gratitude in the girl’s voice let the woman know that she had made the right choice in speaking out.

“Very good, miss. Dinner will be served at five.” She bowed heading for the door.

The girl's voice stopped her. “What is your name?”

“Nivedita, miss.”

“Nivedita.”

“Yes, miss. Good evening.” She bowed again before closing the door. She still had a dozen other duties to complete before rest time but she would enlist a few friends in the servants wing to check in on the girl. She’d just have to convince them that the dreaded Candidate from the north was not a barbaric heathen, just a young girl far from home.

“Gran-Gran.” The words echoed through the darkness.

Katara turned, her elegant fire nation Hanfu flaring out around her as she searched for the voice. A little girl in a blue parka materialized, brilliant in the surrounding shadows. It was herself at the age of eight. Hair barely tamed and face still baby round. She held a snowball out in mittens, eyes bright with excitement.

“Look at what I can do.”

Katara wanted to scream, to warn her younger self, but the dream held her silent and still as she was forced to watch her own destruction.

The snowball melted turning into blood that gushed from the little girl’s hands, staining her parka and pooling at her feet in an ever growing arc. Katara stared on in terror as the pool hit the hem of her robes and wicked up the fabric, absorbing the color, and the evil, but hiding it from site.

All of the sudden she was the girl, small, afraid. Sitting in a puddle of blood, rocking as shadow fingers reached for her. “I will never do it again.” She sobbed. “Please do not send me away! I will never do it again, I promise!”

Katara sat bolt upright in bed, one of her hands stifling a scream in her throat. Tears and sweat dampened her face. Half blind with panic she tore from the bed, tripping in a tangle of sheet and landing hard on the wooden floor with her hip. Kicking loose of the clinging material, like hands grabbing at her, she scuttled away bumping up against a wall. Heart racing, breathing labored, her eyes flew around the room looking for the owners of those snatching hands.

The room in the Fire Palace was empty of all but moonlight and shadows. Both grateful and heartbroken by those truths she bowed her head to her knees, cradling the bruise on her hip, and let the quiet sobs out.  

Not really a dream, just bits of memory struck together to make a living nightmare. It had started with a melting snowball. A simple trick she had practice til perfect to surprise her grandmother. The pool of blood had come later.

Gran-Gran had been adamant about finding her a waterbending teacher. As there were no longer benders in the the South, the Fire Raids had captured them all, she demanded that Katara be brought to their sister tribe in the North.

Katara had begged, promising to never use her bending again, swearing on all the Great Spirits. She did not want to have to leave home or her father and brother, not after they had all lost Mother.

“Hush up.” Her grandmother had ordered, voice unusually harsh as she spoke to the young girl. “You need to be trained. You put everyone in the village in danger by staying here in more ways than one.” She turned back to her son, Chief of the Southern Clans. “It is the only way, Hakoda. I will go with her. We leave with the departing Earth merchants in the morning.”

That had been that. Three months travel brought them to the North.

It had been the last time she saw her brother or father. A year later it was discovered that a Clan had been hiding a water bender. The entire south had been decimated for the crime. A show of force to any who would oppose the Great Fire Empire and a warning that they would soon begin their invasion on the North.

Twice now she had been sent from a place she had considered her home. Maybe now that she was no longer wanted and could no longer return to either, exile would prove more welcoming. If nothing else the relentless curse could finally prove itself useful.

The tears dried as she watched the sun’s first rays bring light into the room. Cream painted walls segmented by dark polished wood columns held up the beautiful open beam ceilings. Glossy wood floors were covered by intricately patterned carpets.

The architecture was beautiful, greater than all the ice walls of the North, but the decor was most definitely lacking. There were no less than three representatives of the Fire Nation emblem in the bedroom alone. The top blanket she had stripped, crumpled, and banished to the corner of the room upon entering was black with their giant red burning trident head dyed in its center. An impressive metalwork sculpture hung on the wall above the bed. The nation’s flag on the left wall.

There were at least a dozen more such propaganda littered throughout the suite of rooms she had been given as a Bridal Candidate. On top of everything being colored red, black or a variation of yellowed cream she felt as if she needed to bathe before she was contaminated.

A breeze fluttered through the netted open windows, smelling of salt and sea. When it was too far to pull at her she found the scent brought only comfort.

Putting on the red robes the Council had specifically made for her to be more attractive in the Fire Nation style she slipped from her rooms to the grassed courtyard outside.

“Who is that?” The prince asked as they were strolling through one of the covered walks in the inner courtyard. The woman was in a brilliant red hanfu and he could just make out the pattern of large gold cranes from their distance. Her brown hair was braided and piled at the top of her head showing off the deep lavender of her inner robe at the neck.

She was watching the turtle-ducks in the small pond.

“I believe that is the Northern Water’s only potential candidate, arrived yesterday with the rest of them. The servants claim she has rather good manners for being from such a barbaric place.”

“Careful, Takumi. We are no longer at war and the far North are our allies.”

The man bowed his head. “Yes, my prince.”

As if feeling their eyes on her she stood and turned in such a graceful movement she had to be a dancer if only because he had seen no-other move like that. Then he forgot all about her body.

Eyes of such startling blue he could clearly see their color from where he stood, locked on him. It was as if she had punched him. He had never seen their color outside the ocean.

“Yes,” the attendant said on an appreciative sigh, “Most definitely the water tribe girl.”

Her eyes flicked over them, landing on him longer in an appraising manner he wasn’t use to from a woman. Fawning, yes. But these eyes saw him.

She clasped her hands together, hiding them inside the wide sleeves of her dress and bowed, showing him the top of her head. “Heir of the Fire Nation, Crown Prince Zuko.”

She didn’t yell her formal greeting but angled her voice so it would carry her soft words across the distance. It was … cool. Not hostile or impolite but like a soft breeze coming off the bay, simply conveying itself with no show of force. Or meekness.

At having been caught staring there was nothing for it but to greet the woman. With a sigh, he marched to one of the brakes in the railing, stepping off the polished wood into the earthen garden.

“Name?” He whispered out of the side of his mouth to Takumi as they drew closer.

“I -uh,- I don’t know.” The man’s voice was slightly panicked as he racked his mind for a name. “Something with a ‘kuh’ sound. Kerren, Korra, Karsen, Kasz...ka?”

“You’re useless.” The prince hissed back before they came into sound range. Plastering a smile he nodded his acknowledgment of her presence. “My Lady. I see you are becoming acquainted with the local wildlife. Do you have turtle ducks in the North?”

“No.”

“Pity. It was the late Fire Lady who introduced them to the palace grounds; they were my mother’s favorite. We would often come out and feed them flax bread together.” Zuko didn’t know what possessed him to add that bit of personal information. He cleared his throat and continued with a different inquiry. “How are you finding your stay with us thus far?”

“Your staff has been most … accommodating.”

“I am glad to hear they are treating you well.”

The time elapsing for her reply was growing. Unsure what else to do he spoke again skipping forth to the parting admissions. “The last guests will be arriving by weeks end. The day after all will be formally introduced. Until then, Lady-” Ah, agni, her name, “Kaszka.”

She blinked. Then bowed. “I look forward to it, Crown Fire Prince.”

He nodded his final goodbye, relieved. He and Takumi moved off to go about his other duties the inopportune stop had put him behind on for that morning.

Once back on the walk and moving away he growled at Takumi. “You are lucky you guessed her name right or you would be fired right now. You will memorize the names of all visiting dignitaries, the region they hail from and their roles there; as of that of their wives, children and their... pets. You will know the names and hobbies of all the potential bride candidates on sight. I will not be potentially embarrassed like this again!”

“Yes, my prince.” The thin man panted trying to keep up with his master’s long strides without appearing to run.

Just before they passed into the east side of the castle he looked behind him, feeling the water girls gaze on him, only to see she had already returned to watching the turtle ducks, completely unfazed by having met the prince of the nation. He was annoyed with himself at having been so enamored with her eyes when she didn’t seem to care a wit. At least he hadn’t embarrassed himself openly in front of her.

He groaned just thinking about scandal if he had called her by the wrong name and the slight had gotten back to her people.