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The thing is that even when they hated each other, they always, always knew where the other one was.
It’s something that Zuko gets used to. Katara’s gaze follows him wherever he is in the camp. Training Aang, helping with the cooking, even when he’s heating the water for the laundry – he feels that tingle between his shoulder blades and turns around and those stormy eyes are watching him.
So he decides that he’s going to watch her back. Because why does she deserve to do this to him? To torture him like this? Never saying a word, never taking an apology. Sure, okay, a part of him understands. If someone had befriended him only to betr– be very confused at them, and make bad choices, well, he’d have been angry too.
But Zuko’d changed since then. He’d learned, he’d… suffered. And he was trying to make it right, dammit.
He assumes Katara’s watching him while not doing other things, so at first, he starts watching her to see what she’s failing to do in order to keep an eye on him. But no. She keeps right on organising the cooking rota, the laundry arrangements, sending people out for supplies or to scout the land or for information, training Aang, training herself. She’s absolutely relentless, and even Zuko has to admit that he’s impressed.
But if she’s relentless with herself, she’s just as bad with her surveillance of him.
After a while, checking where she is – watching her watching him – becomes a habit.
That’s why he knows where she is when the earth in the Air Temple starts to tremble and chunks are flying through the air. That’s why he can, with perfect accuracy, fling his body across hers and pull her out of harm’s way.
It’s not just that he knows where she is. It’s that he knows she keeps him… honest. And he wouldn’t like to be without that.
(That’s why it’s her arm that reaches up to him, that he grasps with all his might when she plucks him from the air.)
That’s why he takes her with him into the Fire Nation, and wants no other backup.
Yes, she’s fierce and fearless and a fighter. But as they slip through the skies and he’s steeling himself to face his sister, Zuko knows that it’s not just a warrior he wants by his side.
If it all goes wrong, he’ll keep fighting simply because he doesn’t want to disappoint Katara. He worked too hard to gain her respect. She’s somebody to die for: to keep in the world, who automatically makes it a better place.
She looks up at him, and smiles, and her reassurance is worth a thousand soothing words from anyone else.
She believes in him, now.
“Katara,” he says, and his voice is a little hoarse. “Katara.” He leans down over the edge of the saddle to look her in the eyes.
She tilts her head up. “Yeah?”
He kisses her, full on the mouth, his hands on her arms, tugging her to him before he loses his nerve. After a few sweet seconds, he backs away, blushing. “Uh. Just so you know. I’d’ve been sorry if I died without getting to do… that.”
Her cheeks are crimson. “Zuko, I – ”
“I’m sorry,” he continues, hastily, because she looks shocked and he’s probably ruined everything now and he turns back to Appa’s reins.
She yanks him around to face her, and gazes at him. “You’d better beat your sister,” she says, “because I want more of that, please.”
It’s his turn to blush. “Oh. Okay then.”
And he takes her in his arms, and really, who knew that kissing could be so awesome?
She pulls away after a few minutes, hair mussed, lips crimson, eyes shining. “Uh… that’s very distracting. You should probably be, uh… focusing. I mean, I’d hate for you to lose because we... um.” She blushes, and he laughs.
It’s true. He needs to be able to fight for her. For the world. But she climbs out of the saddle and wraps an arm around his waist, and he holds her close in the cold of the sky.
When they land in the Fire Nation, they’re still holding hands.
*
He does beat his sister. And he takes a bolt of lightning for Katara, because she’s worth dying for.
She’s spitting curses as she brings him back to life, saying, “If you die on me, Zuko, I’ll never let you hear the end of it, I swear, you can’t leave me, you can’t, I’ll come down to the spirit world and kick your – ”
When he opens his eyes and realises she’s bending her own tears to heal the wound on his chest, he knows he’s going to live a long, long life, because he always wants to see her looking at him with that fierce tenderness.
“Thank you,” he says, “for forcing me to be a better person.”
“Don’t die on me, don’t you dare,” she says, before pulling him up against her and kissing him, her hands holding his head in place, the tips of her fingers stroking the nape of his neck. “Those are terrible last words, and also, I love you.”
That forces the breath from his lungs, gives his arms the strength to sit up and hold on. “I’m not going anywhere,” he says after a minute, pulling away until he can look at her.
“Well, good,” she says, and she sounds almost annoyed about it, and he wants to stay here in her arms forever. “I didn’t go to the effort of healing you for you to decide I’m not worth it.”
He runs his hands in her hair, and says, “You’re definitely worth living for.” And then he blinks and says, “And, uh, if you admit to anyone that I said anything that soppy, I’ll have you thrown in jail – ”
She kisses him again, just to shut him up.
He pulls away after a bit, realising he’s missed something very important. “Katara?”
“Yes, Zuko?”
“I love you too.”
She blushes, nudges him rather harder than is necessary, and says, “Shouldn’t we go tell them that you’re going to be Fire Lord?”
He raises an eyebrow at her. “Shouldn’t we go tell them that you’re going to be Fire Lady?”
It takes them a little while to leave the site of the last Agni Kai, but really, in the grand scheme of things, he’s definitely okay with that.