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It all began in the Misty Palms Oasis. Aang, Sokka and Toph had all gone into the desert by themselves as Katara waited at a nearby tavern. She really did want to go, however she feared her vulnerability would eat her alive as the only source of water she’d have would be her bending water, and that was just a small amount locked in her pouch.
She sipped on her iced oolong tea (that had way too much sugar), hand cupping her cheek as she stared into her beverage. “What are they doing? Are they okay?”. The train of thoughts didn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon since she felt a cold sweat breaking out all over her so she went to the bathroom to freshen up. As she wiped the beads of sweat from her forehead, she felt her stomach grumble and decided she needed to eat, after all she was so consumed by worry that she hadn’t eaten a bite since yesterday.
She quickly entered the tavern again only to be met with a pair of narrow, golden eyes staring into her large blue ones.
“Zu-“ She began, only to be cut off with a hand covering her mouth.
He glared at her as she slowly understood what he wanted and signalled for him to move his hand.
“What are you doing here?!” She whispered with a harsh tone.
“No, what are you doing here?” He blurted out, even louder than her as he quickly looked round to see if anyone was giving them looks. He took a quiet sigh and grabbed her to a nearby table as she mumbled curses under her breath.
“Look, i’m not here for the avatar and i don’t want to hurt you, so please just leave me be.” He explained, hushing his voice so only the two of them could hear.
Katara looked like she was about to explode, staring daggers into his eyes, yet despite her utter resentment, she took a deep breath to calm down. After all, she didn’t want to gain any attention.</p
“Lee!” Another voice called out, as an old man approached Zuko, yet his eyes met Katara. “I.. don’t want to.. interru-“
“She’s not my girlfriend!” Zuko quickly yelled, killing any accusations before they could even be made. Katara simply just stared at the man, a sense of deja vú pooling into her stomach.
“I didn’t mention that now did I?” His gaze averted to the maiden sat with his nephew. “Well young lady, i see that you recognise me, and I can’t help but remember your face too.”
Zuko’s uncle.
Katara had offered to heal his wound when he was shot by Azula, only to be turned down by Zuko whose thoughts were clouded by grief.
“My name is Mushi, and this is my nephew, Lee.” Iroh stated.
Zuko leaned into her ear “They’re fake names, and if my name ever comes out of your mouth around here, you’re dead meat.”
Katara snorted, scrunching up her nose in amusement. “You don’t stand a chance against me, but anyways what’s your uncles actual name?”
Zuko laughed humourlessly, after all they hated each other’s guts, yet he leaned back in and whispered “Iroh.”
Just as he slumped back into his seat, two very contrasting men bolted the door open and one of them yelled “I know you’re in here!” as he held up two wanted posters, one with Zuko and Iroh’s face plastered onto it with the other having all of Kataras team on it.
Katara recognised them as the men who attempted to capture Toph when she escaped with their group. What were they doing here?
“Shit.” Both Katara and Zuko mumbled under their breaths.
Suddenly, they were both dragged out of the back entrance of the tavern by Iroh who jumped onto his ostrich horse, leaving Zuko and Katara still stumbling onto the ground. “Get up now if you want to live!” He barked.
Quickly, Zuko leaped onto the horse, looking at Katara and holding out his hand as if waiting for a reaction with a worried expression.
“There has to be another way!” She thought, yet there wasn’t, and she knew that, so she hesitantly reached for Zuko’s hand and clambered on as both ostrich horses sped along the deserts road.
In that short moment, Zuko couldn’t help but notice all the callouses on her skin, and how the edges were rough, yet her palm was soft.
His thoughts were quickly shut down as the horses began galloping, with no particular destination in mind.
Katara on the other hand, was so on edge that she thought she’d burst! “They’re going to come back with me not there! I can’t just leave without saying anything! But if i stayed then surely i would’ve been taken by those two degenerates..”
“Don’t think anything of this, I know you have no choice but to come with us. Our destination is Ba Sing Se so if you aren’t looking to go there then leave” He muttered coldly.
“Okay i get it, but what exactly will our story be? The thought of an obviously water tribe girl travelling with two men will certainly raise suspicion.” She replied, concern pulling at her words.
“There is only one solution to this,” Iroh began “and that is for you two to be married!” He exclaimed with delight, yet was met with a look of disgust from both parties.
“No!” They both yelled at the same time, which Katara added on “I’d never marry a jerk like him! I have standards!”
Zuko snapped his head to his shoulder, where Katara’s head rested, “Oh yeah? Well I think the same way! And why are you leaning on me!?”
“Oh shut up, this is the only comfortable spot.”
“If you don’t want to be deemed as suspicious, then i’d suggest you both deal with it.” Iroh claimed sternly.
She swore she could’ve noticed a faint pink brushed on his cheeks as he turned back and muttered “Fine”, his scar illuminated in the sun.
“I never really noticed how attractive he was, his scar just adds on to- NO! Snap out of it Katara! He’s your enemy, not some dreamy hunk with silky hair and perfect muscles and a defined face…”
Her face flushed as she moved away from his shoulder and buried it into his back, so he couldn’t see how stupid she looked. She couldn’t deny that he wasn’t handsome.
But Katara wouldn’t fall for anyone so easily anymore, not after jet. He used her sense of justice and betrayed them, betrayed her..
If it weren’t for Sokka evacuating all the townspeople then Agni knows what could’ve happened, what could’ve happened and Jet was the reason.
Katara swore to herself from that day on that she’d never fall for anyone as easily as she did with him, but she felt like she could at least trust Zuko.. he was acting different from when they normally saw eachother.
That wasn’t exactly a bad thing for her though.
Now her goal was to find the rest of her group and reunite with them, but Ba Sing Se was such a large and complex city, she couldn’t possibly find them.
As if reading her mind, Zuko perked up “About finding your friends, pretty sure that they have a reception to find people in the lower ring.. don’t get your hopes up though, there’s probably hundreds if not thousands of people waiting for their voice to be heard.”
”Yeah.. thanks for telling me though”
Zuko could feel her frown into his shoulder as he sighed. “However, I’m gonna make sure that we find them, you’re too annoying to keep for the time we’ll spend in the city.”
”Okay buddy, you’re probably catered by your uncle everywhere.”
”I am not!” He yelped with mock offense, lifting one hand off the reins to place a hand on his chest in “shock”.
“Sureeee,” She turned to look at Iroh “It’s getting quite late, no? When will we be stopping for camp?”
”Not too long, there’s a small refugee rest stop just up ahead, once we reach there we’ll spend the night and be riding again in the morning, at least that depends on how we are tomorrow.”
Half an hour later, although without a clock they weren’t too sure of the time, Katara sees embers from a fire with only two people around it, that must be the refugee camp! Zuko approached them with caution as Iroh leaped off his ostrich horse and greeted the couple, who seemed to be in their mid to late twenties, much older than both Katara and Zuko who were only 16 and 14.
”Greetings to you both, Im Mushi, a fellow refugee travelling with my nephew and his wife! May I ask if we are able to stay here for the night?”
”Of course! After all this is a camp for all refugees, I am Yan and this is my husband Wei!” she exclaimed, gesturing to her husband who bowed to Iroh, in which Iroh reciprocated the greeting.
Zuko dismounted the horse and held out his hand, which Katara took as he led her to Iroh.
”Hello! I am K.. Mingzhu! And this is my husband Lee!” Katara chirped as she latched onto Zuko’s arm in which he lifted his other arm to rub against the back of his neck, flustered.
”H-hello, i’m Lee..”
“Greetings to you both, Mingzhu and Lee! I hope you both have a wonderful stay here!”
Iroh then stated “Well, it’s getting quite late, I believe we should start setting up the tents, if you would Lee.”
”Oh Mushi i’ll help too!” Katara chimed in. Only to be met with a lighthearted look by Iroh.
”Nonsense! Your husband can handle that, now can’t you Lee?”
It seems that all of their years together have been times of much bonding as it meant that Iroh had Zuko memorised like the back of his hand, he knew exactly how to rile Zuko up.
Zuko murmured something to himself as he began to set up the tents, whilst Yan turned to Katara and whispered, “Newlyweds? You’re both quite shy with each other..”
”Y-yeah…” She fidgeted with the hem of her dress “We wanted to get married as soon as possible due to the circumstances of the war, we can’t give up the chance in times like this.”
In the short time that “Mingzhu” was staying with her husband “Lee”, she’d noticed that lying had become much easier, even though it hadn’t even been a full day spent with them.
Katara could never imagine herself marrying Zuko, her worst enemy, but nobody can deny that they’d look exceptional together.
Too bad they both hate each other.