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Katara is many things. Strong, fierce, courageous, among others. But...being a graceful fighter is not one of them.
Aang and Toph have run off searching for more melons for combat practice, and Zuko finds himself restless. They're going to take on the Fire Nation in under a week. Wasting time like this is just ridiculous.
So, he offers her some one on one training. He’s not sure how she’ll react; she might accept gratefully. She might also punch him. It’s kind of risky, but he does it nonetheless.
Luckily, she’s pretty cool about it. “Defensive?” is all she responds with.
After realizing that that’s a yes, he agrees immediately. After all, Katara is quick, no one can deny that, but one good hit is all it takes to knock her down. Good for her enemies, but rather disadvantageous for her allies.
So here they are, trying to spar in the scalding heat.
“Like this?”
Katara strikes a pose. Though her expression is fierce, her body language looks almost uncomfortable. If she were to land her feet like that accidentally, she’d fall for sure.
“Not quite”, Zuko responds belatedly. “Try to keep your feet under your shoulders.”
She shifts a little. “Yeah, this doesn’t feel right.”
“It doesn’t look right either”, he shoots back.
As she snorts, he walks in a slow circle around her.
“Pull your shoulders in a little”, he suggests.
“Like this?” She does something that makes her look vaguely like Appa trying to scratch his own back.
“N-No”, he sighs. After a moment of thought, he decides to go for it and places an exceedingly gentle hand on her shoulder.
“Relax.”
She does. Slowly, carefully, he guides her so that if someone threw an attack at her chest, she could block it.
As he steps away, allowing her to get a little more comfortable with the movements, she draws through them a couple of times. The first is awkward, but each one after grows slowly more confident. By the sixth or seventh try, she’s grinning.
“Lemme try it on you”, she says suddenly.
For some reason, the proposition flusters him. Odd; they’ve been sparring together for forever now. He shouldn’t feel like a fumbling rookie around her. She’s the student.
Perhaps only out of spite towards his roiling emotions, he responds with a decisive, “Okay.”
He steps to face her. They stare for a moment or two, both silently daring the other to make the first move. Zuko was rather impressed when he discovered this quirk of hers. Despite Katara’s offensive and almost violent nature when faced with real peril, her practice mentality is almost scheming.
He sees her focus shift just a tad, but it’s all he needs.
He strikes. Hard.
The blow connects, not hard enough to injure her, but enough to sting heartily. She stumbles backwards with a sharp cry. It looks like it takes all her might just to stay on her feet.
“Again”, he demands. He’s met with no complaint, just a determined scowl.
This time, when he hurls flames at her, she throws up both hands, swirling water between them. He’s resisted against, but her makeshift shield falls to bits immediately, and she gasps as the force hits her.
“Again.”
They repeat the movements again and again, like a dance. The longer he swings, the firmer her defense grows, until his hand collides with the barrier and he can’t hold back a hiss of pain.
“There you go”, he praises, letting his body language fall back to normal. “Nice work.”
She fixes him with a wary look, but after a moment, her guard drops.
Amusement presses at his throat. Gullible.
As suddenly as Zuko can manage, he hurls another blow, this one more ferocious than all the others. It’s a dirty move, but she can’t drop her defenses like that around an enemy. She doesn’t do it often, he’ll admit, but one bad decision is all it takes.
He begins gathering what he’ll say when she catches her breath, but he realizes that he’ll have no chance or reason to say it.
Katara’s eyes flash with surprise, but only for a split second. Before he can pull out of the attack, or dodge, or redirect, or anything, she blocks him with one hand.
He smiles. Huh. She’s learning.
And then her other hand grabs his wrist and he swears internally because he fell for it, and this is going to hurt.
She swings him to the ground with unbelievable strength. Zuko can’t hold in a shout as his spine collides with the hard stone. Her hand presses against his throat, but with very little pressure.
“Nice try, but you’ll have to do better than that!” she teases.
He can’t bring himself to retort, too winded and too shocked to even think. He also finds himself too caught off guard to patrol his thoughts the way he usually does, so instead of thinking, She’s doing much better or I need to keep my eye out for that in the future, his mind is babbling, Wow. She’s really pretty when she’s angry.
His silence must have worried her because by the time his mind returns to his body, she’s dragged him to his feet.
“Hey”, she calls. “You okay? I didn’t beat up your pride too much, did I?”
He tries yet again to come up with something sarcastic to counter with, but she’s smirking at him and he’s rendered utterly speechless.
Somewhere in the odd haze, he hears Aang and Toph in the distance, flinging insults at each other. Katara is speaking to him and her tone is colored with worry, but all he hears is her repeating his name like a mantra and he suddenly needs--
“Zuko”, she huffs, this time in that annoyed tone he just can’t resist, and he breaks.
He cups her cheeks with both hands. The look he gets in return is understandably surprised, but it’s not angry. Instead she looks... starstruck.
“Sorry”, he offers breathily in advance, “But I have to.”
He kisses her.
Zuko would have understood fully if she’d hit him in the chest and vowed never to speak to him again, but she reacts with full enthusiasm (his knees almost buckle right there) and he thanks every ancestor he can think of for getting so lucky.
Her arms wrap around his neck, and he happily lets himself drown a swirl of heat, softness, the occasional clicks of teeth, and her.