flameohotzuko

[flameohotzuko]

teeny tiny drabble: The gaang love breakfast. Katara loves something Zuko loves. Katara resolves not to love something Zuko loves.

It’s a strange consequence of Toph, Sokka, and Aang’s free-wheeling, very risky scamming days that the gang now have more food than they know what to do with. All those stealthily fought-for pieces of silver giving way to more than ten types of moon peach jam, a few loaves of salty fish village bread,  Earth Kingdom roti, and a whole lot of oddly shaped fruits, vegetables, and buttery residues being kept safe in Appa’s saddle. And Sokka’s pockets. And Momo’s grabby hands. 

Katara, of course, won’t eat any of it. Has everyone gone mad? She and Toph got thrown in jail because of those scams! And Sparky-Sparky-Boom-Boom-Man came after them! And she’d had to sweat her own waterbending water to get out of it. Eesh.

Even the idea of accepting whatever salty bread slice Sokka’s shoved on his person for ‘a surprise mid-battle snack’ makes her want to gag. 

Of course, Toph doesn’t have any suspicions about it. She’d eat anything. Gosh, she’s even happy to arm-wrestle Sokka for crusts! Toph loves bread and Toph dunks literally everything in the sweetest slice-tinged jar of moon peach jam - to the extent that Katara once asked her if she’d rather just have the jar, why waste time with anything else? And Toph and Aang and Sokka had declared that a great idea and licked a few jars clean with just their tongues. 

Katara had had to squirm through their sticky faces for the whole day after that. No one had listened to her telling them - even politely - that maybe they could wash their faces before they went into town for anything. She could even waterbend a facial if they really wanted! Of course, Sokka was remiss to remind her of the many times, back home, when he’d only slept in on the day’s chores for a few minutes and she’d waded in, Gran-Gran by her side, and ‘waterbend-facialed’ him into a face full of ice. An almost-permanent grimace. An embarrassment - and an invasion of his privacy she’d got Gran-Gran involved in - that he’d hold onto forever.

C’mon, Katara. Who wants their grandma to see them sleeping with their hair down, in just their.. y’know... undergarments, hugging their boomerang?! And I couldn’t move my face for three hours! Three!!! Hours!!!

Katara couldn’t believe her brother sometimes. That was in the North Pole, Sokka! Water freezes there! You don’t have to worry about that here. And she’s washed your... undergarments a billion times! 

Yeah? He’d dunked his face in more jam. Well, I’m not taking any chances!

In any case, Katara buys her food and keeps it separate from the scamming food. She just doesn’t trust it. She can’t. She won’t. Well, she might sometimes steal a bit of the plain butter. Just for her own separate sandwiches. Just because she likes the consistency of the yellow stuff. It reminds her of days at home, skinning the scales on the fishes that were never as rough as she expected. Smooth. Spreadable as a garnish on just about everything. Not that anyone needs to know her reasons.

Mostly, the gang are just glad that Katara’s stopped being such a goody-goody about everything. Those scams were hard work! Sokka’s offended anyone wouldn’t want the fruits of his labour. And if Sugar Queen wants the boring yellow stuff, well, that’s fine with Toph. And Aang’s just happy she’s eating properly. If it means more moon peach jam for everyone else, that’s... good, too. Great, even.

So great that no one realises Zuko quite likes that plain old butter, too. His tastes and hankerings for the lavish riches fading pretty quickly after his disgracing the Fire Nation and joining the Avatar. And Uncle Iroh always liked the simple things. Maybe it’s time for him to accept that, too.

He never really intended any offence, firebending his bread and spreading the butter over the browned bits. But the way Katara looks at him — mid tear-and-share with Momo — makes him feel like he’s done something wrong.

Oh, he sees her angry blue eyes. Is only Aang meant to feed the.... monkey-bird? Um, monkey-lemur? Lemur-monkey?

She doesn’t say a thing as she storms off. She resolves herself to never eat butter-and-bread again. Not if he likes it. All.... golden and burned somehow. Smelling... delicious. Glistening and gold. No! No way!

And Zuko makes sure to ask Sokka one day, if he did anything wrong. If he’s upset Katara.

And Sokka laughs, and throws an arm around his shoulder, and says all women are mysteries. That includes his sister.

But Zuko isn’t quite sure. So the next time he’s having his breakfast, he asks Katara if she’d like him to firebend her some bread she can butter.

And Katara is adamant she can make her breakfast herself.

But he makes sure to ask her. Every morning. Until one dewy dawn where he doesn’t have to finish his sentence. He hears the rumble of her stomach. Watches as she just shoves the bread next to his hand. And unfurls his palm. And tells him to just get on with it.

And Zuko can’t help the smile that breaks on his face. Her eating with him is even better than eating alone. Even if it means they’ll have much less butter to go around.