The Bickering: Chapter 6
She takes a deep breath, willing the frenzy to slide away. "What do you want, Zuko," she sighs. "Just leave me alone."
"I brought you something," he says. Then his hand is extending toward her, and she suppresses a flinch before she realizes he's holding her mother's necklace.
She looks up at him, mouth agape. "You're giving it back? I thought--I mean--I didn't think you would still have it."
Zuko fidgets. "I always wanted to give it back to you. You said it was your mother's."
"It was." She itches to stroke the worn etching with the pads of her fingers. "This was all I had left of her."
"I lost my mother too," he offers, the fidgeting continuing as she studies the blue stone.
Katara's head jerks up. "I'm sorry."
"Me too."
He drops down to one knee in front of her and leans in, and Katara's breath catches. His arms suddenly form a cage around her face, and then rough fingers fumble with the clasp at the back of her neck, tangling briefly in her hair. And then he is gone, and she's left with an old stone and a worn ribbon around her throat. She wonders at the man who would bring an enemy's necklace to a battle.
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