Melted Porcelain || dontplay-withfire
The light roll crumbled at his fingertips; different-sized chunks of bread dropping from his hands to bounce off skewed, viridian blades planted beneath the firebender's seated body. Stress loomed over Zuko like a shadow, his body transformed into lead yet his mind attempted to process quick-paced situations throwing themselves at him in a logical manner. He seemed even more scattered than normal, his porcelain slowly melting around him and the only person these days that could cease the flame to preserve his body and mind from tiring was Katara. Negotiations with the Sun Warriors regarding the distribution of knowledge about the remaining Firebending Masters and the original source of firebending to convert from the previous ways of anger and hate had grown difficult; not to mention the Royal Advisers were breathing down his neck about anything concerning his personal life, especially when it involved the waterbender herself. Although, many of those aides knew to stay tight-lipped when speaking of Katara, especially if it was leaning negative.
The urges not to be in a relationship with someone from the Water Tribe had diminished when they realized how serious it had become, but now there were bringing up arguments against him asking her to move in, even though she practically resided in the Fire Nation palace at the moment. It wasn't as if Zuko was considering their words and wants for a different relationship, but the constant slightly subtle resurfacing of the subject during work really pissed him off. At least he had several of the advisers agreeing with him.
Picking up several of the scattered crumbs in his contemplative state, Zuko tossed the remnants of the broken loaf into the rippling water. He didn't focus on the content quacking of the turtleducks and only reacted on instinct when Noel, the turtleduckling Katara had given him, nudged his leg for more food. Reaching out, his fingers gave several placid strokes along her petite, feathered body to make up for the absence of bread within his grasp, what had been left of it was already devoured by the larger turtleducks floating along the surface of the pond. The presence of these creatures always managed to provide him with nostalgic memories, but he had learned to push aside the painful ones and concentrate in what he could remember of his mother. His mother: another part of his life that itched to be resolved and constantly applied pressure on him to do just that. It was more difficult than it sounded, attempting to find a woman who had been lost for many years now, and it was times like these that he either wished for solitude or the comfort produced from Katara; however such wishes were hard to come by at this moment, especially the latter since she had wandered down to the market an hour or so ago, so Zuko accepted the former of the two with a slight discontent.