lana78me

[zukosdualdao]

i'm a worst case kid / in a plague pit town

zutara month, day 1: reluctant allies

summary: ever-slight canon-divergence in which zuko accepts katara's offer to heal iroh after feeling his too-weak, dying pulse, as his injury is bad enough zuko is unsure he will survive otherwise. not much else changes. it was never going to.

warnings: canon-typical depictions of injury, violence, and trauma responses.

other notes: title is a lyric taken from tommy lefroy's "worst case kid". starting pov is zuko's, ending pov is katara's. two pieces of dialogue are directly taken from the show.

*

The wind is whistling in this dry, abandoned, dead town, dead like—

Zuko does not shiver, and he does not cry.

He used to be able to tell himself things like that and mean it. When did that stop being true?

Uncle’s pulse is so faint, for a moment, he thinks it isn’t there at all. Even when he feels it, he knows it might as well not be. He might not have long at all.

Zuko hears the other footsteps approaching, their silence loud and almost mournful, but he bristles on instinct. They can’t see him like this, can’t see Uncle like this—how could he be so stupid as to turn his back on the enemy? 

“Get away from us!” he shouts as he looks back. They’re all staring at his uncle’s prone form, and Zuko turns back to him, too, heaving heavy breaths. He needs to do something, but he is weak, useless, outnumbered—

“Zuko, I can help,” the waterbender insists, and Zuko wants to snarl, yell, reach for his fire, and he raises his hand to do so—and frowns. 

What does she mean?

He looks back to where Uncle lies prone.

A heartbeat shouldn’t feel like that. The Dragon of The West shouldn’t go down so easily.

Uncle shouldn’t be able to seem so small and worn and fragile.

Slowly, Zuko lowers his hand and looks to her striking blue eyes. There’s no pity or malice there, he doesn’t think, she just looks… still cautious and unyielding, but sad and sincere, too.

He’s fallen for tricks like this before, though—Azula has always loved how easily she could fool him—and it feels a little like he’s standing on the edge of a steep precipice.

It would be naive to just… trust the word of an enemy. She has no reason to want to help him. He knows this.

The rest of them still watch his uncle’s maybe-dying form, but the waterbending girl stares at Zuko unflinchingly, almost as though in challenge.

Uncle groans brokenly, the noise like that of a wounded animal. 

“How?”

*

The world is dead silent.

The prince of the Fire Nation is staring at her with tears threatening to fall from his right eye, though not the left, which is twitching lightly. She’s never before noticed how he can’t seem to open it fully due to the scar tissue set against it. She’s never had much reason to take in his features as anything more than the face of their enemy. 

His gaze is still steely and untrusting. In this light, his scar looks violently red and painful. He asks after her offer with a voice that cracks, though he doesn’t seem to pay that any heed. His hair is short but growing in, and he’s traded out his Fire Nation attire for earthly green and brown robes. He looks so different from when they last saw him. 

He looks so… young.

It’s all a little bizarre.

“Be careful, Katara,” Sokka insists from behind her, though when she glances back, his focus is on Iroh, a complicated expression playing on his features. Aang is staring at him, too, eyes wide and verging on teary. She doesn’t yet know Toph very well, but Katara can tell her body is rigid, her feet tense as her toes curl into the dusty ground beneath them. Toph doesn’t know that Iroh has been their enemy. But Iroh also helped them at the North Pole, and again just now against that princess, Zuko’s sister, she supposes, with her calculating eyes and strange blue fire.

Katara nods but says nothing further. If Zuko was going to make a move against them, he could have done it when his sister vanished.

They had turned away from their futile attack against her, and he’d already been kneeling at his uncle’s side.

She approaches slowly, circling to the side opposite him. When she kneels and reaches for her waterskin, Zuko nearly growls and takes hold of the edge of Iroh’s sleeve tightly, like he might try to drag him away.

“I’m not going to hurt him,” Katara says, flush with indignation. The dirt beneath her chafes her knees even through her clothing. “I need space to heal.”

“I’m not moving, so forget it.”

Katara tilts her head and looks into his eyes as he glares back. He now looks every bit the angry, hateful prince that had tracked them around the world for months, but she can see something else filtering through his expression, too, something like fear.

She almost wants to laugh at the absurdity of it. Why should he be afraid of them?

“Fine,” she allows after a moment. “Just don’t get in the way.”

He nods tightly, and at the agreement, Katara opens her waterskin. She calls the water to her and sets it against Iroh’s the right side of his chest, his robes black and charred. Closing her eyes, she calls out to his chi and focuses her energy on it. She doesn’t know if she can do it, doesn’t know if Iroh is truly too far gone…

After a few long moments, his breathing evens, and Katara sighs. Across from her, Zuko’s features soften just a fraction, but when she meets his eyes, somehow, she knows exactly what they both are thinking, united in nothing but this.

It doesn’t change anything, Katara's thoughts insist as her friends draw closer. Zuko tenses again. It can’t.

[the-badger-mole]

In a Time of Adversity

It was just his dumb luck, Zuko thought. All year he had been butting heads with the city's most annoying overachiever. Katara, the prodigy with a 9000 IQ, who'd managed to skip a grade and end up in all of Zuko's advanced placement classes, had been thorn in his side since the day she'd corrected one of his physics equations in front of the whole class. Ever since they had been locked in an increasingly heated battle of who would earn the highest marks in their class, and every week felt like a new face off.

Sometimes he would come out on top, but he had to grudgingly admit that while gave as good as he got on tests and assignments, she had the upper hand when it came to quips and put downs. Too often Zuko had been left sputtering in her wake, struggling to find a comeback from some scathing retort she'd just delivered. It wasn't until after yet another one of these exchanges, when Zuko in his frustration had the thought that he would love to throw her against a locker and kiss her until she didn't have the breath for one of her smart remarks, that it occurred to him that there might be more to his feelings towards her than animosity. And that was the last time he ever spoke to her directly. Disaster averted.

So, of course, when their science class goes on a weekend long camping trip in the middle of Backwoods, Nowhere, he would end up being partnered with her to find a rare fungus. Of course they would end up losing the trail and wandering through the forest with no clue how to make it back to camp. And of course, it would start raining, sending them scrambling up the mountain to a cave that was hopefully abandoned.

"At least we won't have to worry about dehydration," Katara said, pulling the water from their clothes.

"Sure," Zuko replied gruffly. He looked around for something to burn, but there wasn't anything but some leaves and twigs around. Not exactly the makings of a bonfire.

"I'm sure they're looking for us already." Katara sat down against a wall and drew her knees up to her chest.

"Great." Zuko wasn't optimistic about the prospect. Their science class wasn't exactly full of the great outdoors types. Katara had the most camping experience of anyone. The best they could hope for was that the chaperones would call search and rescue early the next morning.

"Do you think we should look for some firewood or something?" Katara suggested. She was shivering a bit, and Zuko could feel the chill settling onto his skin, too.

"It'll all be wet," he told her. "All we'll end up doing is smoking ourselves out."

"I can dry it," Katara reminded him. There was a sharp edge to her voice now. Zuko looked over at her and realized she was scowling at him.

"What's your problem?" he asked, irritably.

"You!" Katara shouted. Her voice bounced around the shallow cave jarringly. "You're my problem."

"Me?" Zuko drew back, affronted. "You're the one who got us lost, Katara, Queen of the Jungle!"

"Alright, fine! I'm sorry, alright?" Her voice cracked dangerously. "I just thought we could work together on this and things could go back to normal between us." Whatever Zuko had been expecting her to say, that was not it.

"Normal?" he repeated, completely baffled. "Normal between us? What are you talking about?" Over the sound of the falling rain, Zuko thought he heard Katara sniffling. Was she crying?

"You-you've been avoiding me for weeks," she said. Zuko was stunned. He'd heard Katara laugh (usually at him), and yell (again...usually at him). He'd heard her confidently dressing down a teacher that once made the mistake of telling her that women didn't get far in the science field. But this...this vulnerability in her voice. That was new.

"I haven't been avoiding you," he said. It wasn't entirely a lie. It's not like he turned the other direction when he saw her in the hall. He just didn't engage in their verbal sparring matches.

"You won't talk to me," Katara said. "You barely acknowledge me when I talk to you. When Piando assigned us as partners, you looked like he had just told you to eat a raw snail. I don't know what I did to offend you this badly, but I'm sorry, okay?" She was definitely crying now, and Zuko was panicking.

"I'm not...I'm not angry at you," he told her hesitantly. "I just...it's just that our bickering was beginning to feel....I don't know...childish?"

"So it's because I'm younger?" Katara demanded. Zuko winced. That was a frequent sore spot for Katara. Because she'd been moved ahead in school, some of her teachers and classmates made a big fuss over her age whenever she did something they didn't like. Zuko thought it was stupid. She was a year and some change younger than him, and only two years younger than the oldest people in their grade. Hardly a mind bending gap, especially given how mature she was generally.

"No, that's not it," Zuko said. "It's not about your age, or grades or anything like that. I just don't feel like having an enemy I don't need to have." Katara fell silent for a moment. Zuko thought he could still hear her sniffling every so often.

"I didn't think we were enemies," she said softly. It took a moment for Zuko to understand what she'd said. Then he snorted.

"Right," he scoffed. "That's why you called me a spoiled brat who probably paid someone to do my homework for me."

"Okay," Katara huffed. "I'm not saying we were besties or anything. But I thought we were at least friendly rivals. I wasn't seriously accusing you of cheating. It's just...school isn't always a challenge."

"Egghead," Zuko muttered. Something small-an acorn, probably- hit the wall next to his head. He smirked at Katara in the dark.

"That's more of a criticism of our curriculum than a brag," she said defensively. "Anyway, I was saying that you challenge me. If I wasn't trying so hard to be better than you, I would be so bored."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." Katara's soft spoken vulnerability hung in the air between them for a long moment. Then Zuko laughed. He sensed Katara stiffen, draw into herself, and he slid over to her side of the cave.

"I'd be bored without you, too," he admitted. "And for the record, the only one in our school who would be worth paying to cheat from would be you." Katara scowled up at him, Zuko was actually close enough to see it in the dark. Then she laughed, too.

"So what did I do to piss you off so bad, then?" she asked him. Zuko drew back, feeling the heat rush to his face.

"Nothing," he said quickly. "You didn't say or do anything. I just wanted to be different, I guess."

"Oh." Katara wrapped her arms tightly around herself and a hard shiver ran through her.

"You're cold," Zuko said.

"Aren't you?" Katara asked through clenched teeth.

"Firebender," he reminded her. "Um...if you want, you can..." Zuko opened his arm towards her, an awkward invitation. Without hesitating, Katara scooted over and curled into his side, wrapping her arms around his waist.

"You're better than a heating pad," she sighed contentedly.

This was a mistake, Zuko thought immediately. Katara lay her head against his shoulder and every thought he'd had about kissing her until she was dizzy came rushing back. He would be a complete gentleman, of course, but he prayed that sleep would come quickly and end his torture.

"Hey, Zuko?" Katara lifted her head to look at him.

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad you're here with me." Zuko's mind screeched to a halt. What did that mean? After a moment he decided it didn't really matter.

"I'm glad, too," he said honestly.

[diornies]

Zutara Month Day 1: Reluctant Allies (but make it Tangled AU)

The au isn’t fully fleshed out, I just thought the characters dynamic in the film were reminiscent of zutara. However, people on twitter helped me come up with the idea that Zuko is a banished fire nation prince that ended up being a vigilante thief “Blue Spirit” in the Earth Kingdom. When his identity as Lee the tea shop guy is revealed, he was on the run and ended up in a tower where he meets Katara, who was kidnapped by Hama as a baby.

[parkiebearr]

Zutara Month 2024: Day 1- Reluctant Allies

What if Katara when into the tea shop instead of running?

[morrocoyconchuo]

Happy zutara month, everyone! I promised myself I would do a sketch a day, so here we are!

@zutaramonth

Edit: where the fuck did the clothes go in the second panel. Crazy.

Day 1: Reluctant Allies

Made in the Sketchbook App for Android.

[gazedberry]

Zutara month Day 1: Reluctant Allies

Divergent AU!

[sokkastyles]

Zutara Month Day 1: Reluctant Allies

Or, may I offer you a little CoD AU in these trying times?

There was an incredible flash of light. Zuko could barely see for the brightness, but there was something about the light. He had seen it before, at the south pole. He’d known immediately what it was then, and he knew now, here in the luminous green-dark of the catacombs beneath Ba Sing Se.

He’d chosen wrong. Zuko had made so many bad choices in his life, and today he’d chosen wrong again. He knew it when he’d seen the eyes of the waterbender staring back at him from the dark mouth of the cave. Yet that hadn’t stopped him from choosing wrong again. His sister’s victorious smile as he’d sent a blast of fire towards the Avatar. She hadn’t known what he would do, and something about that niggled at the back of his mind. Azula had doubted, and then smiled, and he saw Katara’s face fall at his sister’s triumph, and his ruin.

“I thought you had changed,” she had said, and her voice was like ice daggers sliding into the holes in his heart. But nothing had changed. The holes were still there, had been there for a long, long time, slowly bleeding out with each wrong choice he made.

But then there was the flash of light, and for a moment he felt the familiar hope, but it was different this time. This time, he had only a split second in which to decide, and suddenly he found himself in front of his sister, his index and middle fingers extended out towards her, the way uncle had taught him to do, and then there was another bright flash of light, and a jolt of energy that nearly knocked him off his feet. Then the energy was all around him, and he was holding it within, and he had to let it out, and then he let it go, somewhere past his sister and towards the roof of the cave, where it shot forward in a blast of lightning that sent a cluster of stalactites crashing down onto the cave floor.

There was still so much brilliant light. Not the rapidly dissipating light of Azula’s lightning, but the light coming from the Avatar, floating in midair, chunks of rock orbiting around him, gusts of wind hurtling towards them from the tunnels, the water from the pools rising to join the cacophony. The Avatar's eyes were glazed white-blue.

Azula had been knocked off her feet by the force of Zuko’s redirection, and was quickly rising, staring at the rapidly building center of the chaos. Katara was staring, too, and the Earth King’s Dai Li agents stood poised, uncertain. Zuko looked at Uncle, and then he saw that the rumbling of the cave walls was causing his crystal bonds to crack. Uncle looked worried, though. Too worried.

The wind was rising. Katara was screaming Aang’s name, and Zuko was running towards Uncle, but then the ground rose up to meet him and everything went dark.

He remembered the feel of Katara’s fingers brushing his cheek, the tip of her thumb accidentally grazing lightly across his upper lip. It felt like a lover’s touch, like a dream, and then he thought he must be dreaming while he was remembering.

Maybe you could be free of it.

Wrong. So wrong. He would never be free, even if he lived for a hundred more years of war. But maybe that was alright, as long as she was touching his face.

He opened his eyes. She was brushing dirt off his face, picking rocks from his hair. So much for a lover's caress.

They were still underground, but it was darker than it was before. Gone was the brilliant flash of light, and even the light from the luminous green crystals seemed dimmer. Zuko realized they were in a smaller section of the tunnels, although he wasn't sure how he got here. Dimly, he could feel the sun high above them, underneath miles and miles of rock. It was like being deep underwater, and he had to stifle down the faint feeling of drowning. Katara was looking down on him with dirt-smeared cheeks and worried eyes.

Instinctively, he reached up a hand to brush the dirt away, like she had done for him, and her flinch made him draw back as if he had been burned. Then she stood and turned away from him.

“We have to find a way out,” she said, to the darkness and not to him.

“Azula…” he muttered, having again the sense that this had all happened before.

“No, it wasn't her, she was thrown by the explosion the same as we were.” Katara shook her head, her back still to him, her hands feeling along the rock wall

“The…” Zuko sat up and took a step towards her. “What happened…the Avatar…” a horrible realization was forming in his mind.

“It wasn't his fault,” she said, and when she turned to him her blue eyes were so, so wide. “He can't control it. I thought maybe after he went to see the guru…” Her eyes were far away, but then suddenly their focus shifted to Zuko. “You did something. You stopped Azula's lightning! That was incredible!”

Zuko thought he had hated her judgment, but now having her look at him with something like admiration was even worse, especially considering the current circumstance. “And it did a whole lot of good, didn't it!” He spat the words at her. “The Avatar just blew up the entire catacombs because I saved him from being electrified!”

Everything he did was always wrong.

[jasmine-tea-latte]

Zutara Month 2024, let's gooooo!!!

Happy @zutaramonth, friends! 🎉 I can't promise that I'll be able to write something for each day, but I'll try.

Please enjoy my entry for Day 1 - Reluctant Allies.

[homeagainrose]

And so it begins!

Zutara Month!

Day 1: Reluctant Allies

A Crystal Catacombs AU

@zutaramonth