Borealis: A Zutara Story
Part 1 Chapter 120
Chapter 120
Katara was grateful for Chu-hua’s request speed their progress to the Earth Kingdom. Her bending had been limited to katas and cleaning the deck until that point. It had been maddening to feel the ocean all around her but not be able to truly interact with it. Each day she allowed herself to get lost in the steady push and pull of the ocean made her feel more like herself and she felt her strength starting to return.
The feeling was so freeing that she would have bent them non-stop to the Earth Kingdom or dove in head first after bending herself to exhaustion if Zuko had not been there watching.
She could not explain how he knew when she was about to give into the call of the water, forget everything and jump in. He would place his arms around her and hold her to his chest saying she’d had enough; to rest and they’d come back up later. Zuko said he timed her using his pocketwatch, but after seeing it once, Katara knew better. The small sundial looked as though Korhi chewed it up, spit it out then stepped on it but Zuko swore it was accurate. It allegedly told time by using the chi-levels of the Firebender wearing it to measure the sun’s passage across the sky. It ran backwards when Katara put it on. Zuko smartly explained it was due to her opposite element. She had to give him credit for that one; unlike most of the things he said that one actually made sense.
Katara began to wish she had Toph’s ability to determine if someone was telling the truth. The Zuko human parts of Zuko she thought she had deluded herself into seeing were still there. She had thought that once she stopped retreating into fantasy Zuko would become as monstrous as his father and sister but the kind, confused boy she had gotten to know remained. Zuko still got out of bed most nights to tearfully apologize to their lost child. He promised that he being it back and make a world a safe place by becoming Aang’s Firebending teacher and end they war. He would defeat his father become Fire Lord and so it could live in a world without war.
She wanted to believe that was all an act but he always said it while he thought she was sleeping. He even went so far as to test her before he got up to make sure she was sleeping when he returned to bed to be sure she hadn’t woken up. It could have been just another ploy to get her to trust him so she would introduce him to members of the resistance so he could destroy it; making a selfish grab for power would be more in line with a brute forcing another to be his plaything.
Or he really could want to help them; ending the war would be more in line with someone heavily influenced by Iroh and Zuko had been hunted by the Fire Nation war machine. After seeing their relationship it would make sense if Zuko wanted to depose his father; if her Dad treated her like that she’d want to do something to hurt him too. It would make sense if he just wanted to seize the throne to finally prove he was better than Ozai and Azula.
But his words and actions didn’t make sense unless Zuko really did want to start a family with her. He had stopped pulling out of her when he released and the tea he gave her didn’t taste like the contraceptive blend she’d had in the infirmary. Each night his hand would cover her stomach protectively as he pulled her against his chest and held her. Katara was starting to fear he was deliberately trying to get her pregnant.
She still had not decided what to believe about him when the loud cheers announced the Ursa would be docking.
Arraye: Thank you for your feedback earlier. The Fire Nation are still angry about the losses they've suffered to the Avatar. The anger is compounded by Hakoda's actions. Aang and Katara are protected so is Appa now that he has been branded property of the Fire Lord. Sokka is the only member of Avatar's group and Water Tribes left for them to vent their frustrations so he gets a beating every time a new ship pulls up. The crew of the Ursa has had time to work out the majority of their anger (and they know if they beat him up too much they'll be stuck cleaning up after Appa).