Katara of the Southern Water Tribe

Independent. Selective. RP blog for Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender

[wcvecrested]

Independant. Selective. Katara from A:TLA

Portrayal is based on the shows and movie. I have not read the comics and don't intend to. Some stuff from the novels may appear in this portrayal. Please read the rules before interacting. No personal blogs.

Written by Dotty (30+ | GMT | she/her)

Headcanons | Katara's Verses | Memes

Associates: @reigningmuses, @airlegacy / @honorforged, @dreamlightmagicgarden, @sumimasu,

Other blogs: bloodlaurel (Dragon Age multimuse) and wolf-eyes-wolf-soul (BG3 Tav)

Blog banner by @airlegacy

Mobile Rules

01.    I am 30+ year old female. She/her pronouns. MY NAME IS DOTTY. I am Irish and live in the GMT timezone. I am also autistic. Please keep this in mind when messaging me as I may misunderstand you as text is hard to convey tone over.

02.THIS BLOG IS SELECTIVE AND MUTUALS ONLY. My Discord will be made available for mutuals so we can chat plots or even RP over there.

03.     I do NOT tolerate any form of bigotry on this blog be it racism, homophobia, transphobia, etc. I will immediately block you if you post anything of that nature ooc.

04.PLEASE MESSAGE ME ABOUT POTENTIAL TRIGGERS and I will attempt to make sure that it is properly tagged so you can avoid it. I am willing to RP darker and more violent themes so if this is an issue then I’ll be more than happy to try and accommodate you. I will try to tag as many triggers as I possibly can but I may miss things. The only trigger I have in regards to RP is CHILD MURDER. This is from a bad experience of mine in an RP several years ago and would prefer if this is not included in any threads with me without at least talking first.

05.     I am open to RPing with multiple versions of the same character. Send me a message if you want to plot something and I will happily chat with you on how to make that happen. I AM OC FRIENDLY.

06.     This blog has a policy of NO INTERACTION WITH UNDERAGE USERS. This is for my own comfort as well as there being possibly NSFW content as well as mature themes such as violence.

07. I WORK FULL TIME and thus this can impact my ability to reply quickly. I do try to respond as soon as possible to any reblogs, asks, or memes sent to me but please keep this in mind. I will not tolerate being harassed about replying. I don't expect my partners to match my posts in length but I will not respond if I only get a one line reply especially if I have written several paragraphs.

08.     Any shipping will be based on how much chemistry I believe there with another muse. ANY SHIPPING WAR NONSENSE OR SHIP BASHING WILL BE BLOCKED. I am open to exploring most kinds of relationship dynamics, not just romantic, so feel free to come to me with your ideas. I RP SMUT BUT AM SELECTIVE ABOUT IT.

[honorabledragon]

@wcvecrested continued

Zuko blushed as Katara stood in his doorway with red cheeks. He didn't know where or why she'd gotten ahold of so much wine — and she was free to do as she wished, obviously — but he was standing here now facing those repercussions.

It was quite late and Zuko was already in his pajamas. It usually took him awhile to actually get himself to bed with the mountains of fire lord work that piled up. But it was late enough that he'd even gotten to do that, and Katara was still here, drunk at his door, and seemingly confused.

"Katara," Zuko began, laughing a bit at the sight of her like this. "Katara, this is my room," replied Zuko, grabbing a robe to throw on. "I think we ought to get you back to your own room and get you some water — and maybe some bread."

[wcvecrested]

"No!" Katara replied somewhat indignantly "This is my room!"

She was certain it was. The palace was a maze of corridors and she was certain she had taken the right set of turns...or was it the left set of turns? It was very easy to get turned around and she felt somewhat embarrassed asking a servant to help point her in the right direction. She was a master waterbender, she had trained the Avatar, she would not be bested by corridors!

"I'm fine!" She continued to protest although she remained somewhat slumped against the door frame. It wasn't her fault that it was comfy. "Toph 'n I just had some food and drinks."

How many drinks she wasn't entirely sure. It was a bit fuzzy.

[fanfic-gremlin-ft-trauma]

they won :)

[wcvecrested]

🍷 — @honorabledragon

Send 🍷 for Appearing at My Muse's Door Drunk @honorabledragon

"Hiiiiiiii Zuko."

Katara giggled, slumping against the doorframe. Something about Zuko's name just sounded utterly hilarious to her in that moment that she couldn't stop herself.

No one had stopped her as she had drunkly stumbled her way back to her room in the guest wing. Which begged the question:

"What're you doin' in my room?"

[mythshire]

Send 🍷 for my muse's reaction to yours appearing at their door, drunk.

[firehonored]

I don't need luck, though, I don't want it. I've had to 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑔𝑔𝑙𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 and that's made me 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐆. 𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑚𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝑚𝑒 𝑾𝑯𝑶 𝑰 𝑨𝑴.

[recordmemes]

༘⋆｡ let's  get  trope-y.

almost a sequel to this. for the cliches, the relationships you read about in romance novels & see on your tv screen.

friends  to  lovers.

be  honest,  have  you  ever  thought  about  us?

if  this  ruins  everything,  i'll  still  be  glad  i  said  it.

you're  the  safest  place  i've  ever  been.

i  don't  want  to  risk  our  friendship.

i'm  terrified  of  losing  you.

you've  slept  over  a  hundred  times  before...  but  this  feels  different.

i  see  how  you  look  at  me.

you  look  radiant  tonight.

i'm  sorry,  but  i'm  in  love  with  you.  and  i  think  you  love  me  too.

i  don't  know  why  but  i  hate  your  new  [ partner. ]

if  this  is  a  dream,  don't  wake  me  up.

you  always  know  exactly  what  to  say.

fake  dating.

hold  my  hand.  act  normal!

we  said  no  falling  for  each  other.

you're  scarily  good  at  pretending  to  like  me.

i  thought  the  plan  was  to  fake  a  relationship,  not  be  in  one!

you  kissed  me  like  it  actually  meant  something.

oh  thank  god,  they  bought  our  story.

quick!  kiss  me.

don't  look  at  me  like  you  actually  want  me.

i  wanna  see  how  far  we  can  take  this.

why  does  everyone  think  we're  perfect  together?  ...are  we?

this  was  supposed  to  be  simple!  then  i...

quick  reminder:  we're  just  pretending.

rivals to lovers.

god,  you're  insufferable!

you're  infuriating. and  yet...  i miss  you  when  you're  not  here.

you're  the  last  person  i  want  to  care  about.

i  think  you're  the  only  person  that  actually  understands  me.

i've  never  felt  like  i've  been  pushed  so  far  by  someone  before.

i  want  to  win.  but  i  don't  want  to  lose  you.

you're  the  only  one  who  can  keep  up  with  me.

you  drive  me  crazy.  and  i  think  i'm  crazy  for  you.

i  think  you're  the  only  person  i  want  to  compete  with.

i'm  tired  of  pretending  like  i  don't  care  about  you.

if  you  win,  you  can  have  me  for  the  night.

mutual  pining.

why  did  you  say  friend  like  that  when  you  introduced  me?

do  you  ever  feel  like  you're  holding  onto  the  shadow  of  something?

don't  read  too  much  into  that.

i'm  not  staring  at  you!  i  was  just  looking  in  that  direction.

i  guess  i  just  know  too  much  about  you.

it's  nothing.  just  my  imagination  running  wild  again.

i'm  not  jealous  of  them!  you'd...  make  a  cute  couple.

i  wasn't  waiting  for  you,  i  just  happened  to  be  here.

it's  silly,  but  i  always  notice  when  you're  not  around.

you  don't  need  to  say  anything.  just  sit  with  me.

enemies  to  lovers.

you  make  my  blood  boil...  and  i  hate  that  i  like  it.

maybe  i'm  fighting  for  more  than  just  victory.

i  hate  you.  i'm  terrified  of  what  that  means.

i  loathe  everything  about  you.

i  will  destroy  everything  you  stand  for.  but  i  won't  hurt  you.

i'm  supposed  to  see  you  as  the  enemy!

i  can't  stop  thinking  about  you.  you're  in  my  blood.

you're  supposed  to  tear  me  down,  not  look  at  me  like  that.

i  want  to  crash  into  you.  i  don't  care  what  that  means.

we're  from  opposite  worlds!  this  could  never  work!

i  don't  care.  i  want  to  keep  you  safe.

[stormbreaker101]

I LOVE COLLABORATIVE SOTRYTELLING I LOVE CREATING THINGS TOGETHER I LOVE "YES AND"ING WITH OTHERS I LOVE "NO BUT WHAT ABOUT-"S I LOVE HEARIJG MY FRIENDS' IDEAS I LOVE BOUNDING OFF OF THEM I LOVE ART I LOVE STORIES I LOVE ALL THE DIFFERENT PASSIONS AND SKILLS REQUIRED I LOVE ALL THE DIFFERENT MEDIA IT TAKES I LOVE I LOVE I LOVE

[wcvecrested]

How Adorable Are You?

Katara is more adorable than that but I'll take it

[all-things-rp-blog]

What is the most noticeable thing about my writing style?

[honorforged]

The water coiled around Zuko's arm and jerked him forward before he could properly brace himself. His boots scraped across the floorboards of the tea shop, the sudden force dragging him through the doorway and out into the open plaza. For one brief, dangerous moment, instinct surged to the surface. His body was craving to respond with a twist of his stance, a sharp burst of heat, and the water would have exploded into steam, but instead, he clenched his teeth and let himself be thrown. He hit the stone street hard enough to jar his shoulder and send a spike of pain down his arm.

The impact scraped skin from his palm when he caught himself and crouched against the ground while the world settled around him. The gathered crowd recoiled instinctively, widening the circle around them as whispers began to spread through the plaza. Curious faces peered from shop entrances and windows, but Zuko ignored all of it as he slowly rose to his feet and turned back toward Katara.

His pulse was pounding from the sheer strain of holding himself back. For months, he had been trying to become someone different. He had swallowed insults from customers having bad days. He had learned to smile when Uncle nudged him toward people instead of away from them. He had spent every day forcing down the temper that had gotten him into trouble his entire life. Yet somehow, standing here in front of Katara, he could feel all that hard-earned control straining under the weight of her accusations.

"You know what?" he said at last, his voice low and tight. "You're right. I spent years making one terrible decision after another because I was obsessed with capturing the Avatar." His laugh was short and bitter. "Half the plans you're making fun of were even worse than you're describing." The admission should have felt humiliating. Instead, it felt exhausting because he wasn't arguing those points anymore. He wasn't even trying.

His gaze swept briefly across the crowd gathering around them before returning to Katara. The sight of so many curious faces made something twist unpleasantly in his stomach. Every extra witness increased the chance that someone would recognize him. Every whisper carried the possibility of reaching the wrong ears. The tea shop sat behind him like a fragile thing suddenly caught in the path of a storm, and the thought of it being dragged into this made his jaw tighten. His uncle had worked too hard for that. They both had.

"Do you know what's bothering me right now?" he asked. "It's not that you don't trust me. I understand that. Honestly, I'd be more concerned if you did." His amber eyes locked onto hers. "It's that you're not actually listening —I've stood here and let you accuse me of everything you can think of. I've admitted to all of it. I've told you you're right not to trust me. I've done everything except get down on my knees and beg you to believe me." Frustration roughened his voice despite his best efforts. "You found me serving tea," he said, gesturing broadly toward the shop. "Tea, Katara. Not military plans. Not hidden weapons. Not some secret operation. Tea."

It wasn't that Katara was refusing to believe him. It was that she couldn't. Not after all the reasons he'd given her not to, and for a brief moment, he almost felt sorry for her. Then he remembered being hurled into the street, and that sympathy evaporated, and a tired irritation took its place.

"If this is some elaborate trap, then it's the worst trap in history." A few people in the crowd exchanged uncertain looks that should have been concerning, but Zuko barely noticed, with his attention fixed on Katara. "I'm not going to fight you. I'm not going to bend. I'm not drawing my swords. I'm not doing any of it." His eyes narrowed slightly. "But if you're going to attack me anyway, then at least be honest about why. This stopped being about protecting the Avatar the second you saw my face. It's about the fact that no matter what I say, no matter what I do, you've already decided that I'm the same person I was when I first stepped off my ship at the South Pole."

[wcvecrested]

A vicious satisfaction settled over Katara as she watched Zuko fly across the floor and out into the plaza beyond. The crowd murmured and quickly scrambled to get out of her way as she followed Zuko at an almost leisurely pace to where he stayed crouched. She half expected a volley of fire to be launched at her head but he didn't move even as she stalked closer.

Instead he kept talking. As if that was going to make her less angry instead of more.

Why should she listen? She thought angrily. When had he ever stopped to listen to them? She had offered him a hand once before. When his uncle was lying injured on the ground in that abandoned village, had she not offered to heal him? What had she gotten for her compassion but a bolt of fire aimed at her head? Apparently it was rules for her but not for himself. Typical royal brat. Holding himself above her by virtue that he was born in a palace in the Fire Nation and she was born in an igloo in what remained of Wolf Cove.

Katara finally stopped in front of him, her blue eyes as cold as the heart of a glacier. Did he think it was some show of nobility to not fight back? She could handle him if he tried. He'd only beaten her at the Spirit Oasis because he had gotten the jump on her after she had thought him beaten. That was her mistake then, taking her eyes off him. Not making sure he was truly out of the fight.

"You want to prove you've changed?" She asked. She had no idea why he was so adamant on claiming that when all evidence seemed to point against it. Still he seemed to think that he warranted a chance to prove himself after a long line of missed ones.

Fine. She could give him one single chance. One final attempt.

"Then here's what you're going to do. You're going to go to wherever you've been apparently hiding out this whole time, you're going to pack your things, and you're going to leave Ba Sing Se. I don't care where you go. Find some place in the middle of nowhere and go and sell tea there for all I care. I never want to see your face again. Do that and then I'll be convinced you're not the same person who raided by home as you so graciously reminded me you did."

She didn't know when Aang would get back from his trip to the Eastern Air Temple. Who knew how long it took to master an ability like the Avatar State? Zuko didn't know that and Katara was content to bluff.

"You have until midnight tonight when Aang gets back to the city. If you're still here then you'll answer to me."

And considering she had flung him across a plaza with a flick of her wrist, she didn't consider that threat to be an idle one.

[wcvecrested]

Katara cannot hold her drink AT ALL.

This is for two reasons:

There is no alcohol in the polar regions. Alcohol is grain based and there is nowhere that you can grow grain in either the Southern or Northern Water Tribes. Any alcohol would have to be imported and there are things far more necessary than alcohol which take priority

She is just a natural lightweight. She's taking two cups of wine and that's her a giggling mess for the rest of the night.

[loisnclark]

𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐞 !

    do   you   want   a   certain   kind   of   ship   with   my   muse  ?   check   out   the   key   below   &   send   me   a   symbol   to   tell   me   what   kind   of   ship   you   want   !     note  :    my   muse   =   blog   owner’s   muse     /     your   muse   =   sender’s   muses

romantic relationships !

💘  friends to lovers ❣️  enemies to lovers 💜  love at first sight 💙  slow burn 💚  skinny love 💔  exes to lovers again 🖤  on again , off again

familial relationships !

🌼  older sibling 🌺  younger sibling 👭  twins 🌻  friends like siblings 🍃  cousins 🌵  parental

friend relationships !

☀️   best friends 🌦   enemies to friends 🌈   friends since childhood  ⛅️  friends of circumstance  ☁️  school friends  🌩  friends from traumatic experiences

enemy relationships !

🔪   friends to enemies 💣   stole something from my muse 🔦   stole something from your muse 🗡   bullied my muse 🔫   bullied your muse ⚔️   family feud 🛠   fueds between mutual friends ❌   guilty by association

[honorforged]

Katara's anger crashed over him in a wave and Zuko stood in the center of it without moving, which was a strange sensation, because in the past her fury would have ignited his own and he would have met every accusation with one of his own, throwing her distrust back in her face and demanding she see things from his side. But as she stood there with her fists clenched and her eyes blazing, all he felt was a dull, aching understanding. Because she wasn't wrong. Every conclusion she had drawn was the conclusion he would have drawn too, and for a long moment after she finished speaking, neither of them said anything. The sounds filtering in off the street seemed distant now. The murmurs of the crowd already starting their gossip and the nervous shifting of patrons faded into the background beneath the tense silence between them.

Then, to his own surprise, Zuko let out a short laugh. "Do you know the worst part?" he asked, shaking his head slightly. "If I were you, I'd think exactly the same thing." His gaze dropped briefly to the shattered teapot littering the floor between them. Meltwater was beginning to gather around the frozen fragments, the ice slowly surrendering to the warmth of the afternoon sun. For some reason, he found himself staring at it. "You've spent over a year watching me chase the Avatar across the world. Through villages, storms, through entire nations. Every time you thought you'd seen the last of me, I showed up again." A humorless smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Honestly, when you list it all out like that, I sound completely insane."

Then smile vanished almost immediately and his eyes lifted to hers again. "So no, Katara. I don't think you're stupid. I think you'd be stupid if you trusted me right away." For a second, something flickered across her face, and Zuko wondered if she'd expected him to argue. To insist she was wrong. To demand the benefit of the doubt he hadn't earned. Instead, he found himself too tired for that. Too tired of pretending he didn't understand why people looked at him and saw only the worst things he'd ever done. "What exactly do you think my plan is?" he asked. "Really." A slow breath escaped him as his hand swept vaguely toward the tea shop behind him. "You think I've spent months here waiting for the perfect opportunity? Serving tea every day, scrubbing tables, stocking shelves, smiling at customers?" His brow furrowed. "Do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounds?"

The irony of hearing those words leave his own mouth wasn't lost on him. A year ago, he would have endured anything for the chance to capture the Avatar. He had crossed oceans, defied armies, survived assassins and pirates and spirits. Compared to all that, pretending to be a tea server for a few months should have been easy. The problem was that it hadn't been pretending. Not entirely. Because somewhere along the way, the tea shop had stopped being a disguise and the apartment above it had become home. The regular customers had become familiar faces. Uncle's endless advice and terrible jokes had become the rhythm of his days. There was Sumiko too, with her easy smile and the way she'd looked at him after learning exactly who he was and hadn't turned away. Her family knew the truth. They knew his name, his history, everything he'd spent years trying to outrun, and somehow they still treated him like a person instead of a mistake.

The life he'd built here was small and ordinary, and fragile, and spirits help him, he had grown attached to it. "I didn't know when the Avatar got here or that he’d left for training. I didn't know what any of you were doing. Months ago, that would've been the first thing I wanted to know." The words hung between them. Months ago. Before Ba Sing Se had become something more than another destination on a map. Before he'd started waking up each morning without immediately thinking about the Avatar. A hollow feeling opened inside him. Because saying it out loud forced him to confront just how much had changed.

His gaze drifted away from Katara for a moment, settling on the familiar sign hanging inside the tea shop. When he looked back at her, there was no anger in his expression. "You know what I think?" he said softly. "I think you're scared. I think you've spent so long protecting him that the idea of me being anywhere near him makes your skin crawl. I think you've already imagined every possible way this ends badly and you're trying to stop it before it starts." His eyes held hers steadily. "And honestly?" He gave a small nod. "That's your job." He’d spent a year observing all of them, and one truth he knew for certain as Katara protected people. The avatar, her brother, even strangers. It was one of the things he'd noticed the most about her was the way she was always taking care of others.

Zuko exhaled slowly and rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. "I'm not asking you to trust me,” his voice was almost weary now, "I'm not even asking you to like me. I know I haven't given you many reasons for either. I'm just telling you the truth and if you can't believe that..." He swallowed. "I don't know what else to say." That was the part he could never explain himself, because how do you convince someone you aren’t the same person when half the time you aren’t entirely sure who you’re becoming yourself? How do you explain that somewhere between exile and failure and endless pursuit, you'd gotten tired of being angry at the entire world?

[wcvecrested]

He was laughing?!

Katara found herself pulling back for just a second concerned that maybe Zuko had in fact lost his mind completely. Maybe he had. Maybe that's why he was in a tea shop in the Upper Ring of a city his uncle had tried and failed to conquer. After all, if the people knew who he was, they'd probably drag him out into the street and...she suddenly didn't want to think about what an angry mob could do even against a firebender with some skill. It wouldn't be pretty.

But then he looked at her again and the smile dropped and suddenly any concerns she may have had were gone.

"You mean the same level of ridiculous as chasing us from one end of the earth to the other?" Katara argued back "Like trying to drag Aang into the tundra and just sit in a cave until the Fire Nation conquered the Northern Water Tribe? Trying to fight a waterbender under a full moon on a glacier? You're not exactly known for your stellar planning skills, are you?"

So yes, she could definitely believe that Zuko would pretend to be a tea server in Ba Sing Se if it meant he could get close to Aang. It wouldn't be the stupidest move she had seen him pull in the time she'd known him.

"You don't know a thing about me so don't pretend that you do!" If he was trying to make her less angry then he was failing spectacularly.

Katara's patience was not infinite. She could feel herself rapidly coming to the end of it and it seemed the patrons in the shop were sensing that too. Some began to shuffle their way towards the door, away from the centre of the storm that was the very pissed off waterbender and the young man she was yelling at. Katara didn't take her eyes off Zuko. She didn't care what was happening behind her or around her. She would have feared the Dai Li swooping down but they had been scattered ever since Long Feng had been unceremoniously removed from office.

So no one would be coming to break this up. Not today.

And good thing too because Katara did not believe a word that came out of Zuko's mouth. In fact the only thing she did believe was that if she didn't deal with him right here and right now then the moment Aang returned he would be in very real danger. If she had to chase Zuko out of Ba Sing Se like he had chased her once then so be it. She would do it. If it would keep Aang safe then she found she was prepared to do a lot of things, some less than savoury.

The melting ice from her initial outburst suddenly unfroze, collecting together and surging towards Katara. With a flick of her wrist, a water whip caught around Zuko's forearm and coiled tight like a pythonconda. With another sweep of her arm, she pulled him forwards and then past her — the crowd who'd gathered to watch parting quickly — out into the plaza outside the tea shop.

[honorforged]

Zuko's blood ran cold the instant he heard his name and for a split second, he genuinely considered running. It was an instinct with his name and the past he was trying to separate himself from made his muscles tense automatically, preparing to disappear into the crowds of Ba Sing Se before she could reach him. But the sound of shattering porcelain and the sharp crack of ice racing across the floor rooted him where he stood as he slowly turned and met Katara’s angry gaze.

His stomach sank as their eyes met. There was no mistaking the fury in her expression, nor the betrayal that lingered beneath it. He had seen that look every time their paths had crossed during his hunt for the Avatar. The difference was that now he found himself unable to summon the same certainty he'd once carried. Once, he would have welcomed the confrontation. Once, he would have reached for his bending or swords without hesitation and convinced himself it was all for his honor.

The crowd around them was already beginning to notice the tension. Curious patrons glanced between them while others backed away from the spreading ice beneath Katara's feet. Somewhere nearby, Uncle was probably still serving tea completely unaware that the fragile life they had built in Ba Sing Se had just collided headfirst with the past. Zuko raised his hands slowly, keeping them visible to show he was making no move toward any weapons. He had none on him.

"Katara." Her name left his mouth more softly than he intended with no challenge in it, no threat as he let out a slow breath and shook his head. "I can already tell this is going to sound like a lie." A humorless smile touched his face before fading just as quickly. "If our positions were reversed, I'd think exactly the same thing." His gaze flickered briefly to the frozen tea before returning to her. He knew what she saw when she looked at him. The prince who had chased them across the ocean, an enemy who had ambushed them at every turn, a boy who would betray them with every chance he got only months ago. There was no version of events where Katara's suspicion wasn't justified and the weight of that knowledge settled heavily in Zuko’s heart.

"I'm not here because of the Avatar," he said quietly, "I didn't know any of you were even in this part of the city today." His fingers curled slightly at his sides before relaxing again. He hated how defensive he sounded, hated that every truthful thing he said now sounded like another deception. "Uncle and I moved her for a new life and opened a tea shop. That's it. We've been living here for months."

For a moment, his thoughts drifted unwillingly to the small apartment above the shop, to evenings spent drinking tea with Uncle, to Sumiko's laughter filling rooms that had once felt empty. The life he had stumbled into wasn't perfect, but it was real. More real than the endless pursuit of the Avatar had ever been. When he looked back at Katara, something in his expression had softened. "I know you don't trust me. You shouldn't." The admission came easily because it was true. "I've given you every reason not to." His jaw tightened slightly as memories of the siege of the South, the burned village of Kyoshi Island, and every other choice that had brought him to this moment flooded his mind.

"I'm not looking for a fight." There was a weariness in his voice now that hadn't existed the last time she had seen him, that came from carrying pain for so long; he was no longer certain why he was carrying it at all. "If you want answers, I'll give them. If you want to yell at me, I won't stop you. We both know I've earned it." His gaze held hers steadily despite the knot tightening in his stomach. "But before you decide what you're going to do, just... listen for a minute."

For the first time since she had known him, Zuko wasn't standing before her as a prince, a hunter, or even an enemy trying to justify himself. He looked like a teenage boy who had spent months trying to become someone different and wasn't entirely sure whether he had succeeded.

[wcvecrested]

Fury pumped through her veins. Katara's gaze had narrowed onto the young man in front of her. Everything surrounding her — the other patrons, the people milling outside the shop waiting to get in, the people walking by suddenly sensing a turn in the atmosphere — all of it didn't matter.

And he had been here for months. Months! Right under their noses and probably plotting to grab Aang the moment he got the opportunity to. If Long Feng hadn't been the one to keep Appa locked under Lake Laogai, Katara would have been certain Zuko had something to do with that as well. After all, what better lure for a trap than Appa? Get Aang to Ba Sing Se and then spring on him the moment he went to find his lost bison. Apparently Long Feng had just beaten him to the punch.

"You're right, I don't!"

And she winced at herself because those exact words had been lobbed at Jet. Jet. Dead under Lake Laogai and she'd not been able to save him. He'd ended up being an ally not an enemy and she'd been so focused on how he'd hurt her in the past she refused to see how he was helping her in the present.

And it just made her fury build instead of dissipate. Her hands curled into fists, shaking at her side.

Katara didn't want to hear his justifications. She didn't care what he wanted to say. It was only lucky that it was her he'd found and not Aang. He was safely out of the city in the Eastern Air Temple and oblivious to how close the danger truly was. Did he really think she was stupid enough to believe he'd given up? He'd chased them from the South Pole to the North! He had plenty of chances to give up on his insane quest but no, he kept coming again and again. Katara had thought he might have died alongside the other Fire Nation soldiers during the seige but then he and his uncle turned up again in that abandoned village. He simply had no idea when to quit.

"Why should I listen to you? You think I'm stupid enough to believe you—what? Suddenly decided to settle down? In Ba Sing Se? At the same time that the Avatar happened to be in the city?" No, there were too many coincidences there for it to make sense. She was not stupid, even if her older brother was the one known for his brains. "You're an idiot if you think I'm going to accept that because you super duper promise you're telling the truth!"

[kataara]

(x)

[wcvecrested]

Plotted starter for @honorforged

Everything had gone so well after the incident with Lake Laogai. Katara didn't pretend to be anything but grateful considering the cost. It was unfortunate that their group had to split up — Sokka to meet with their father, Toph to meet with her mother, and Aang to finally master the Avatar State — but it would be only temporary. They had the moment to breathe so it made sense for them all to tie up some loose ends before the real planning for the Day of Black Sun could begin.

The fact it was left to her to be the one to coordinate the plans instead of Sokka was daunting. Military strategy was not something she was versed in at all. Her head was pounding from all the discussions she'd sat in on and she wasn't sure if she could understand half of it. She had been grateful for the reprieve that was the afternoon and she had been freed from the chamber. Only one duty remained: deliver the plans to the Earth King.

But before that, she needed to unwind. She needed to clear her mind.

"What do you say to a cup of tea, Momo?" she asked the lemur playfully. She took the chatter she recieved back as an affirmative.

There had been some buzz about a new tea shop opening in the Upper Ring. That seemed as good a place as any to try. It wasn't as if she knew many others considering how tight a leash Long Feng and his assistant Joo Dee had kept them all under. Katara wondered if she'd even seen half of the Upper Ring nevermind the rest of Ba Sing Se.

Then as she was standing outside the tea shop, she heard it. His voice. She would know it anywhere. He had chased her, Sokka, and Aang across half the known world determined to capture the Avatar. She turned her head towards the source and there he was. Zuko. The scar made him unmistakeable.

Zuko was in Ba Sing Se.

"You!"

The nearest teapot shattered, the fine china scattered across the floor as the liquid inside froze in an instant.