#yeah that age gap is exactly the same to Zutara | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

catie-does-things · 4 years

Note

I can't fully commit to shipping Zutara, but your meta has definitely changed my tune on Zutara vs Kataang. Out of genuine curiosity however, say you were on the writing team and had to go along with making kataang canon, what would you have done to help rewrite the ship to make it better (I know you say that Katara doesn't get much out of their relationship, so what would she get out of the relationship?) (You can point me to a fic if that you've written about this already elsewhere).

To be honest, if I really could change anything at all, the very first thing I would do would probably be to make Aang and Katara the same age - either by making Aang older or Katara younger, but preferably the former. 12 and 14 is just an extremely awkward gap in maturity. I suppose if you wanted to keep the age difference but bump them both up a year or two that could also solve this problem. Or make them both 13. Whatever.

But more than just their actual ages, they would need to be written as emotional equals. When Katara mentions her mother’s death in The Southern Air Temple, for example, Aang should take more notice of this and make an explicit show of sympathy, rather than being solely focused on his own hopes for what he’ll find at the air temple the way he is in the actual episode. There are tons of opportunities for little tweaks like this throughout the show, and it wouldn’t have to be done every single time, but basically we would need to see Aang expressing understanding and emotional support for Katara in the same way she does for him.

To look at one more example, in The Serpent’s Pass, we see Aang still struggling with losing Appa and emotionally withdrawing from the rest of the group because of it. Katara notices this and is concerned about him, especially when Aang rejects her attempts to comfort him. This is resolved following the birth of the refugee couple’s baby, after which Aang says:

I thought I was trying to be strong. But really I was just running away from my feelings. Seeing this family together, so full of happiness and love, it's reminded me how I feel about Appa ... and how I feel about you.

And then they hug it out. It’s a sweet scene. But it’s all about Aang and Aang’s feelings, and it didn’t have to be that way. Aang could have also said something to the effect that he realized the strain his emotional distance put on Katara, and that it was unfair to her. This would have validated Katara’s feelings as well as his own, and shifted the focus away from being only about him.

Of course, if you’ve read my meta on The Southern Raiders, I talked a lot in that post about how Aang’s attempts to offer Katara moral guidance and emotional support in this episode came off as really immature and ineffective. This episode would probably need the most in-depth re-write to “fix Kataang”, but off the top of my head some things I’d change: Get rid of Aang’s initially dismissive attitude towards Katara’s desire to confront her mother’s killer, make his attempt at empathy focus more on the genocide of the Air Nomads and less on losing Appa, cut the false equivocation between Katara and Jet, have Aang present the concept of forgiveness in more nuanced terms, and maybe even have Aang go with Katara and Zuko to create more opportunities for him to offer her the emotional support that, in the episode as is, she’s only getting from Zuko.

And then I did briefly suggest a tweak to The Ember Island Players in this meta post. Basically, use the concept of the characters reviewing their past adventures to push Katara closer to realizing her own feelings for Aang - though she can still have reservations about the timing - instead of making her seem more confused than ever. And yeah, if we want this to be a fairly straightforward romance arc where they can just kiss at the end of the finale and that’s a satisfying resolution, then we should cut the entire balcony scene between Aang and Katara in this episode so as not to complicate things unnecessarily.

(If we do keep the balcony scene, then we need to make room for a follow up on it at some point where Aang apologizes for not respecting Katara’s boundaries.)

I could list a bunch of other little things I’d change (for example, in The Fortune Teller, have Katara make the connection that Aang is a powerful bender on her own, rather than because Sokka points it out), but none of them individually would make or break the ship. The general guiding principle is that Katara’s feelings need to be given the same narrative weight as Aang’s, which means they need to be more upfront, and Aang needs to be more supportive overall.

That is of course a lot of changes. If I had to “fix Kataang” by making just one change, it would probably be to cut the problematic scene in The Ember Island Players, which would still leave us with a one-sided narrative of the relationship, but at least one that didn’t undermine itself at the eleventh hour for no reason. In my personal opinion, however, while either approach to “Kataang done right” would be better than what we got, both would still fall short of the narrative strength and dramatic impact of Zuko and Katara’s relationship exactly as it was in canon, so there would still probably be a huge number of Zutara shippers.

#anti kataang #avatar the last airbender #anonymous #catie answers things #atla meta

234 notes · View notes

advocaado · 6 years

Text

Day 14: Festival

@thirtydaysofzutara

This is my second time writing for this prompt. Festival was a prompt in 2012′s Zutara Month as well. I tried to make this story just as fun as that one but in a different way.

Find the whole collection (as well as the previous Festival) on fanfiction.net User: Advocaat

“Wow. Our first harvest festival all together. Isn’t that crazy?”

Sokka took a break from gnawing on his grilled goose-turkey stick to answer the young airbender. “How do you mean?”

“I mean I can’t believe it’s really the first time we’ve celebrated the harvest together,” Aang reiterated. “It feels like we’ve known each other for, like, ages. Don’t you think?”

Team Avatar looked around at each other, bemused. It was true. It really did feel like they’d known each other for much longer than just three quarters of a year.

“Well, this is Sokka and my first harvest festival period,” Katara pointed out with a grin.

Toph shrugged and picked at her ear with her pinky. “Eh. You weren’t missing much. Just a bunch of vegetables and dry grass.”

“And food,” Sokka reminded her, waving his meat stick in her face.

To Sokka’s great horror, Toph responded by snatching the stick out of his hand and taking a bite off it. “And that,” she agreed through a mouthful of meat.

Letting out a strangled cry, Sokka grabbed the stick back from her and scuttled away to hide behind Zuko. He shot Toph a betrayed look that she couldn’t see and bent protectively over his meat. Zuko crinkled his nose at the blue-clad boy and took a very exaggerated step away from him.

Turning back to Aang, Toph said, “But I still don’t know why you dragged us all the way to this middle of nowhere Earth Kingdom village to celebrate the festival. Why are there so many people here, anyway?”

Suki placed her hands on her hips and looked around at their surroundings curiously. “She’s right. It is awfully crowded for such a small village. What’s the deal?”

Aang answered the two of them with a wide grin. “It’s because of that.” He lifted a hand and pointed his finger across the busy thoroughfare to where a large and very out of place mansion loomed over the village.

“Oh, I’ve been wondering about that,” Katara said, mirroring Suki and putting her hands on her hips. “What exactly is it? It looks like a mansion but it’s all…old and decrepit-looking.”

“That,” Aang answered her, “Is this town’s call to fame. It’s what makes this village the absolute bestplace to celebrate the harvest.”

“A dingy old house?” Zuko said skeptically, coming up beside Katara. The two of them shared a confused look.

“You’ll see,” Aang said ambiguously. He gestured at the group to follow. “Just come with me. I promise it’ll be fun.”

oOo

Katara frowned in confusion as they approached the old mansion. From the looks of it, the place had once been very beautiful, but time and poor upkeep had reduced it to a husk of its previous splendor. The rice-paper window shutters were stained and torn and the yard was overgrown. The whole place had a sort of uninviting eeriness about it that made Katara raise a skeptical brow. “Thisis the town’s call to fame? It looks like it might fall apart at any minute. Are you sure we should be going inside a place like this?”

Aang, who hadn’t stopped grinning the whole way to the mansion, nodded confidently. “Yep.” He walked up to the ancient-looking wooden sliding door and with a swift tug pulled it open. It rattled ominously. Turning back to the group, Aang waved them forward. “Come on! I wanna see if it’s the same as I remember.”

He disappeared into the mansion and hesitantly the group followed. First Toph, who had her arms behind her head and looked like she couldn’t care less, then Sokka and Suki, and finally Katara shared another look with Zuko and the two of them took up the rear.

Katara’s frown deepened when she stepped into the foyer and found that the place was totally dark. It sure didn’t seem like anyone was home. “Um…are you sure we should be here?” she questioned. From what she could see of the manor’s inside, the place was covered in dust. “I don’t think anyone’s living here.”

“That, or the owner really needs to hire a cleaning service,” Suki agreed. She crouched down and ran a finger over the floor boards. The finger came away coated in grime and she grimaced. “Yeesh.”

“Don’t worry, guys. It’s—”

Aang was cut off when the door behind Katara abruptly slid closed with a resounding clang. At once, the group was thrust into total darkness.

“Katara!” Sokka’s voice called accusingly from somewhere in front of her. “Why’d you close the door?”

Katara glowered at the area where Sokka was standing. “It wasn’t me!”

The darkness receded when Zuko lit a fire in his palm, casting the group’s faces in flickering orange light.

“Thanks, Zuko,” Katara told him, giving him a grateful smile.

Now that she could see again somewhat, Katara stepped gingerly back over to the door and grabbed the handle. With a grunt, she tugged the heavy slab of wood. To her confusion, it didn’t budge. “Huh?” she voiced, bewildered.

“What’s wrong?” Zuko asked, coming up beside her.

“It won’t open. It’s like it’s locked or something.”

Without needing to say anything, Zuko exchanged places with her. He held his fire aloft in his left hand and grabbed the door handle with his right. Katara watched him give the door an experimental tug and when it failed to open for him as well he set his stance and threw his weight into it. The door didn’t even wiggle.

“Don’t tell me we’re stuck in here,” Toph groaned from somewhere across the room.

“I’m sure there’s another way out,” Aang said chipperly. “You guys wait here. I’ll go find a candle or something.” He lit a fire of his own, illuminating his face, and waved it demonstratively before turning and disappearing through a doorway.

“I’m going with Twinkletoes,” Toph announced and then she was gone as well.

The remaining four shared a look and Suki shrugged. “I guess we’ll just wait here, then.”

With Aang and Toph gone, the group lapsed into silence. Inwardly, Katara sighed. It was just their luck to get trapped in some spooky old house when they should be enjoying the festival. What was with this place, anyway? Using the light of Zuko’s fire to look around, she saw that the foyer was even more decrepit than the outside of the house. The edges of the room were littered with broken furniture and the floorboards were brittle and full of gaps. She couldn’t see all the way to the far end of the room but she thought she’d seen the shadow of another doorway there. Nearby, a narrow set of stairs led up to a higher floor.

Minutes passed in silence. Katara continued to wait, wondering what was taking Aang and Toph so long. Suddenly, a sound like footsteps came from above, breaking the silence with wooden creaking. The quartet looked up at the high, shadowed ceiling.

“Are they upstairs?” Sokka vocalized the group’s confusion.

“Sounds like it,” Zuko agreed.

There was a moment of confused silence which Suki broke. “But the stairs are right here,” she said, pointing at the fixture in question.

Another period of silence followed her statement. Katara could practically hear her companions’ brains working. “Well, it’s a big house,” she pointed out. “Maybe there’s more than one set of stairs?”

“Or maybe that’s the owner,” Suki said, her tone brightening. She grabbed Sokka’s arm and nodded to the doorway where Aang and Toph had disappeared. “Why don’t we go check if those guys are still over there. If that was the owner, then they can help us get out.”

Sokka nodded. “Yeah, sure.” He and Suki broke away and approached the doorway. Their footsteps caused the whole foyer to creak and groan. “Hey, Aang! Toph! You guys still in there?”

Katara watched as the pair disappeared into the dark portal just as Aang and Toph had. Turning to Zuko, she said, “It is strange that they’ve been gone so long. Do you think they got lost?”

Zuko shrugged. “Maybe. Toph’s seismic sense doesn’t work on wood, right?”

Katara nodded. “That’s true. Come to think of it, I’m surprised she even agreed to come in with us. She normally hates houses like this.”

The two lapsed into silence again as they continued to wait. Above them, the creaking of footsteps came again and Katara watched the ceiling curiously. Someone was definitely up there.

Tentatively, she touched Zuko’s arm, drawing his attention. “I think we should follow Sokka and Suki. It’s probably better to stick together. That way we don’t have to go looking for each other later.”

Zuko nodded. “Alright.”

The two left the door and crossed the foyer, following the tracks in the dust left by their friends. As they walked, Katara continued to look around. Zuko’s firelight revealed that the walls were dirty and stained rusty brown in places. The sight gave her the shivers. Why in the world had Aang wanted to come to a place like this?

They stepped past the doorway and found themselves in a parlor of sorts. There was a table in the center of the room and broken chairs were littered about the place. Everything was covered in dust, just like the foyer, but here the dust was disturbed. Tracks covered the floor as if a large group of people had come through and stomped all around the place. What stopped Katara in her tracks, however, was that the room was entirely enclosed. There were no entrances or exits apart from the one she and Zuko had come in through, and yet, Sokka, Suki, Aang, and Toph were nowhere to be found.

“What in the…” Zuko started, casting his hand around to illuminate the room as much as possible. “Where did they go?”

Disturbed, Katara took a step back toward the entrance. “We saw them come in here. It was definitely this room.”

She nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt a hand grab her arm but it was just Zuko. His mouth was set in a straight line and he looked uncomfortable. “Let’s go back.”

Katara didn’t need to be told twice. She nodded and together they turned around and left the parlor.

…Only to stop in their tracks once again when they reentered the foyer and found that the room had changed. As if by magic, a number of wall sconces had been lit, illuminating the whole room. Now that the darkness had been chased away, however, Katara promptly wished that it hadn’t.

The blotchy brown stains on the wall weren’t water damage as she’d initially suspected. She cupped a hand over her mouth in horror as she took in the true state of the room. High up on the walls, human corpses were strung up like wall scrolls. Their bodies were covered in lacerations that leaked sticky brown blood down the walls and their faces were white in death. Katara stumbled backward and let out a scream. Her legs gave out but Zuko was there, catching her and steadying her against his side.

At the sound of her scream, one of the corpses, a long-haired man in Earth Kingdom green abruptly jerked his head up, revealing that he was still alive. “You…” he croaked, fresh blood spilling from his mouth. “You must…leave. Go…now.”

Katara gaped at him in horror. “You’re…alive.”

He shook his head weakly. “I’m done for. But you…can still get away.” He jerked his head in the direction of the stairs. “Go…up. Hurry!”

Katara shook her head and broke away from Zuko to take a step forward. “Hold on,” she pleaded. “I can heal you!”

The man just sighed a long, shuddering sigh and his head slumped forward onto his chest.

Zuko grabbed her wrist and gave her an urgent look. “We don’t have time, Katara. We need to find the others!”

Katara wanted to protest, but the words died in her throat when the lights flickered and an awful clanking noise came from the doorway Katara had seen on the far side of the room. It sounded like the metallic clanking of iron shackles. Zuko was right. They needed to get out of here immediately.

They hurried for the stairs. Zuko paused at the bottom and allowed Katara to go up first before following close behind her.

At the top of the stairs, they found a long hallway. The moment they reached the top step, flames flickered to life in the wall sconces just like they had in the foyer, showing that the hallways was lines with identical-looking wooden doors. At the far end of the hallway was a more ornate door that Katara imagined led further into the house.

Slowing to a walk, the two benders hesitantly started down the hallway. Both were on edge and they stuck as close together as possible. Sharing a look, they silently agreed to ignore the line of doors along the hallway and head straight for the one at the end. However, the moment they tried to walk past the first door, they were stopped by a soft knocking coming from the other side.

“Excuse me,” the high-pitched voice of a child came from behind the door. “Is somebody there?”

Katara looked at Zuko, conflicted. Zuko also looked uncertain but then he shook his head. “We need to focus on finding Sokka and the others,” he said quietly. “If there are other people trapped in this house, we can send help for them after we escape.”

Once again, the voice sounded from beyond the door. “You’re there aren’t you? I can hear your heart beating.”

Katara’s face paled. Okay. They definitely needed to leave. She grabbed Zuko’s hand and as quietly as they could they crept away from the door. They came to the next door and once again, there was a knock as they passed. “Your blood is loud,” the same voice came again.

Katara felt Zuko squeeze her hand urgently and they picked up their pace. They passed another door, and yet again the voice appealed to them. “You’re trying to be quiet but I know you’re there.”

Katara clamped a hand over her mouth and continued on, trying her best to ignore the voice of the child.

At last, they arrived at the end of the hallway and to Katara’s great relief no knocking or voices came from this door. Zuko grabbed the handle and pushed it open.

The two benders stepped into this new area slowly, their eyes darting every which way to make sure they weren’t going to be jumped. What they found was a large corridor—or what Katara guessed was a corridor. It was difficult to make out the exact layout of the room because it was absolutely cluttered with mirrors. They lined every wall and free-standing mirrors blocked their view of the other side of the room in a haphazard arrangement.

Hesitantly, Katara released Zuko’s hand and ventured further into the room. “What is this place?” she wondered aloud.

Zuko walked forward as well. “It looks like some sort of storage area,” he answered. “…For mirrors.”

Katara shivered. “I never thought something as mundane as a mirror could be so creepy.” Turning to beckon Zuko along, she said, “Come on. Let’s just get through here so we can get out of this terrible place.”

Zuko didn’t need telling twice. He hurried to walk alongside her and together they began picking their way through the maze of mirrors. At least this room didn’t have any bodies or creepy children, she thought as they maneuvered through the room, but it was kind of unsettling to see her and Zuko’s reflections scattered about the room as if there were a dozen copies of them all searching for the exit.

Katara guessed they’d made it about halfway through the room when something caught her eye that made her blood run cold. She saw movement in one of the mirrors that wasn’t her or Zuko. Stopping abruptly, she held out a hand to halt Zuko as well. “Zuko,” she whispered.

Zuko placed his hand on her shoulder and she saw his reflection nod. “I know. I saw it too.”

Katara shivered again and wrapped her arms around herself. “I hate this place. I want to get out of here.”

Zuko used the hand on her shoulder to turn her around and pull her against his chest. He held her there for a moment and in a low voice said, “Stay calm. We’re going to find the exit.” She saw his lips turn upward and he added, “Remember that we can fight if we need to. Whatever’s living here can’t be worse than Azula.”

Katara felt some of her anxiousness diminish. Zuko was right. This house might be creepy as all get out, but they were two of the strongest benders in the world and together they were a force to be reckoned with. She lifted a hand and placed it atop Zuko’s lightning scar. The wound still wasn’t completely healed but it stood as a testament to Zuko’s strength and a reminder that together they could do anything.

She took a calming breath and pulled away to give her companion a nod. “You’re right. Thanks, Zuko.”

Zuko gave her a genuine smile. Then his face sobered and he nodded to the path ahead. “Let’s keep moving.”

They continued carefully through the maze. Every now and again, Katara would catch that flash of movement in one of the mirrors, but she did her best to ignore it and push on.

The further they progressed through the room, however, the more frequent and clear the flashes became. Katara found her eyes darting this way and that, trying to get a proper glimpse of whoever was in the room with them. With her nervousness rising, Katara’s pace began to increase. Just get through this. Just get through this, she chanted in her head. She thought they’d almost made it to the end when suddenly a figure appeared right beside her and Zuko in the mirrors’ reflection. At last, their pursuer had shown themselves.

The figure was a small girl garbed in a ratty blue tunic not dissimilar to Katara’s own. She had long, shaggy brown hair and crystal blue eyes and Katara and Zuko both stopped abruptly at the sight of her. Katara’s eyes widened and she looked at the spot beside herself where the girl should be standing in order to appear with them in the mirror but the spot was empty. She was forced to look back up at the mirror when the girl suddenly began speaking.

“I knew there was someone here,” she spoke with the same voice as the child from the previous room. “I told you, you’re too loud. But don’t worry. I can make you quiet.”

The girl raised her thin arms and at first Katara was confused when she just held them there, unmoving, but then she saw Zuko’s eyes widen in the mirror and he grasped her arm. “Katara! Look down!” he directed urgently.

Look down she did, and what Katara found caused her to suck in a breath. What had once been bare wooden floorboards was now a river several inches deep. As she watched, the water rose, creeping up her calves at an unnatural rate. “What the—!” she vocalized her confusion. All around them, the whole room had become a lake. The water sloshed at her boots as Zuko took a step backward, putting distance between himself and the girl in the mirror.

Thinking fast, Katara sank into a bending pose and attempted to grab hold of the water, but to her horror, the water resisted her control. It was as if there was another force fighting against her. Zuko, seeing her struggle, grabbed her wrist and began pulling her toward the far wall where the exit had to lie. “Forget it!” he ordered. “Let’s just move!”

They began trudging for the exit but the water continued to rise, reaching their thighs and then their waists, greatly slowing their progress. Unable to run now, they waded frantically toward their destination. The water rose up their chests and had nearly reached Katara’s neck when at last, they burst through the line of mirrors and found a door before them. Katara fumbled for the doorknob, unable to see it through the combination of water and poor lighting.

“Hurry!” Zuko called to her as the water continued to rise.

Finally, Katara’s hand brushed the knob and she grasped in firmly. Giving it a single, deft twist, the door flew open and Katara found herself being sucked through the doorway as gravity caused the water to rush out. She floundered helplessly as the tide carried her along and she realized belatedly that she was sliding down some sort decline. The water and gravity continued to carry her down, down, down, until the slope bottomed out and she was deposited on soft earth. Not a moment later, she felt something solid barrel into her and when she opened her eyes again she discovered that something was Zuko who had been swept down as well and now joined her in a tangled heap.

“Ouch,” he uttered, deadpan, as he began to disentangle himself from her and search for his footing.

Katara did the same, pulling herself into a standing position and brushing the dirt from her dress. To her great surprise, she discovered that she was completely dry. She looked at the place where she and Zuko had come from and found a metal slide. It was long and she was unable to see the top through the gloom. “A slide? What kind of crazy house has a slide on the other side of a door?” she heard Zuko vocalize beside her.

“More importantly,” Katara answered him, “where are we now?”

The moment the words left her mouth, candles began flickering to life all around them, chasing away the darkness. The answer to her question became apparent as the candles’ light illuminated a series of barred cells arranged in two rows on either side of the room. Inside the cells, skeletons garbed in all four nations’ colors huddled in corners, their clothes filthy and ragged. Some of them still had clumps of hair and jerky-dry skin. In the center of the room, not enclosed in any cell, was a stone casket on a raised pedestal.

“It looks like some kind of dungeon,” Zuko said. His golden eyes flitted about the place warily, taking in every detail of the room. “Dungeon-tomb?”

Looking at the rotting skeletons, Katara thought she might be sick. “It’s awful. These poor people...”

Suddenly, a high-pitched cackle split the air, causing both Katara and Zuko to nearly jump out of their skin. Looking around frantically, they found the source of the sound. One of the skeletons had straightened and was watching them with hollow eye sockets. “Don’t feel bad for us, little lady. Our suffering’s already ended.”

The two watched in horror as the talking skeleton lifted a bony arm and extended its finger straight toward them. “Yours, on the other hand, is just beginning.”

As if the skeleton’s words were a signal, every other skeleton in the room suddenly began to stir. The rattling of bones filled the room as the skeletons pulled themselves to their feet and began ambling toward the doors of their cells. Every one of them had their faces trained on Zuko and herself.

It was too much. Katara screamed. Mindlessly, she began running across the room. The only thought in her panicked brain was that she needed to find an exit. She needed to get away from here as fast as possible. She couldn’t take this anymore.

She sprinted past the stone casket knowing instinctively that if she paused some nasty ghoul would pop out of it as well. Behind her, Zuko’s feet pounded on the earthen floor. The rattling of bones continued to surround them, their sound rising to a cacophony pitch.

“There’s nowhere to run!” the skeleton’s voice called gleefully after them. “You’ll be trapped here with us forever!”

Katara didn’t listen. Ahead of her was a short set of stairs, and at the top of it was a pair of inclined wooden cellar doors. She and Zuko raced up the stairs and together they threw their weight against them.

The doors opened easily and chilly autumn air blasted Katara’s body. She stumbled as she exited but Zuko caught her, saving her from a painful impact with mud and leaves.

…leaves?

Getting her feet under her, Katara looked around. She wasn’t in the house anymore. Above her was blue sky. Some distance away, she could hear the happy voices and bustle of people enjoying the autumn festival. And in front of her…

“Hey, Katara! Zuko! You made it!”

There was Aang, looking cheerful as can be. Beside him Sokka and Suki stood grinning at them and some distance behind them Toph was leaning against a tree.

“…What?” was the only word Katara could find as she looked at them.

“Took you long enough,” Toph grumbled from her tree.

“So, how’d you like the haunted house? Pretty scary, huh?”

Katara shared a bewildered look with Zuko. Looking back at Aang, Zuko said, “…the what?”

“Man, I nearly wet myself!” Sokka declared, stretching his arms high into the air to flex his back. “The guy with the sickle was terrifying.”

Suki giggled behind her hand. “You guys should’ve seen it. He frightened Sokka so bad he ran head first into a wall.”

“Wait,” Katara said slowly. “Are you saying that none of that…was real?”

“Yep,” Sokka confirmed. “Apparently, spooky houses like this are an Earth Kingdom tradition.”

“That’s why I brought you guys here,” Aang confirmed. “Because this one is the scariest of them all.”

Beside her, Zuko scowled at the short airbender. “You could’ve warned us. I thought I was going to have a heart attack!”

“And ruin the surprise? No way!” Aang exclaimed. “That would do you a huge disservice. It wouldn’t be any fun if you knew what to expect.”

“Well,” Katara said, feeling suddenly warn out, “I think I’ve had my fill of surprises for one day. I vote we leave this horrid place and get some food.”

“Seconded!” Sokka voiced his support for this plan. “Oh! Oh! I wanna try the noodle cart!”

Without pausing to wait for the others, he grabbed Suki’s hand and began jogging back in the direction of the thoroughfare.

“Hey, wait!” Aang called after him. “I want noodles too!” He promptly took off after them, leaving Katara, Zuko, and Toph behind.

Katara paused to take another look back at the house and a shiver ran through her. Fake or not, she really didn’t like that place. The sooner they left, the better.

Zuko must have seen her shiver because he stepped close to her and silently grabbed her hand.

Katara shot him a grateful smile and gave his hand a squeeze. Without another word, the two of them, along with Toph, began the short trek back to the festival.

#Zutara #Zutara Month 2018 #zk month 2018 #30 days of Zutara #you'll need to put your big boy pants on for this one

76 notes · View notes