AtLA Fanfic: Red and Blue: A Different Beginning Part 1
Title: Red and Blue: A Different Beginning
Author: SCWLC
Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own nuthin'.
Rating: PG
Summary: A slightly different start, a little bit of self-deception - they can go a long way together.
Notes: Okay, so this is like the series rewrite from Crazy Zutara 'Shipper Land. I'm not even going to try to figure out all the whys. This is going to be like the ultimate, "Just go with it, okay?" sort of fic. I don't even know. I was in the middle of some abortive fic that I don't know what I'm doing with it, when this idea came to me in a flash of hoppy fur and ears. Roughly . . . what if Zuko wasn't in the South Pole when Aang woke up, and somehow managed to run into Katara a lot without ever realising she was the Avatar's friend, and without Katara ever knowing he was that firebender that was chasing them. Or something like that.
Just . . . don't expect rational thought on this one.
The First Meeting
For the first time, Zuko had real rumours to follow about the Avatar. For three years, all he'd had was legends and stories passed from parent to child over the past hundred years. His ship had landed on Kyoshi for reprovisioning, and the next thing he knew, he was hearing a hundred rumours about the Avatar being somewhere on the island.
He followed the rumours and found himself in the village where the Avatar Kyoshi's temple was. Zuko was wandering through the market, having disguised himself as Earth Kingdom so as to be able to sneak up on the Avatar, should the man truly be there. Unfortunately, he was distracted from his search by a flash of blue. Amidst the greens and browns of the people, the girl in blue stood out like a jewel in mud.
She was a jewel. A girl from the Water Tribes, to judge by her exotic dark skin and wavy brown hair, was shopping in the market, and Zuko found himself drawn to her. Somehow he wound up standing next to her. So close, in fact, that when she turned, the basket on her arm bumped into him, sending her packages flying.
"I'm sorry," they said in unison.
Zuko hastily joined her in gathering up her purchases. "No, it was my fault," he said. "I was standing too close."
"I should have been watching where I was going," she told him, blushing prettily.
He knew he should get back to hunting the Avatar, but it had been a very long time since he'd last been around anyone his own age, let alone a pretty girl, and Zuko just couldn't bring himself to let the moment end quite yet. In his panicked attempt to think of something to say, he blurted out, "You're just really pretty."
She whipped around, blue eyes wide, and said, "What?"
"I . . . Forget I said anything," Zuko said, feeling extremely mortified. What was he doing? She was some Water Tribe peasant, not even worth the time of the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation.
Then she said, "I . . . I'm . . . pretty?" She smiled at him, and he forgot all about his hideous embarrassment. "Thank you. No one's ever said that before, except my Dad," she told him self-deprecatingly. "I'm Katara."
Another moment of panic. He couldn't tell her who he really was . . . "Lee," he said, grasping the first name that came to mind. "My name is Lee." He suddenly realised he was still holding the last of her packages and handed it to her. Suddenly he realised a topic he could use to extend the conversation a little. "So, what are you doing here, on Kyoshi?"
"I-"
"Katara!" came a voice from somewhere in the crowd.
She looked disappointed, and Zuko felt vaguely cheered by that. "Oh! I have to go. Sorry, and thank you!" she said as she whipped off. Before he could give chase, he spotted one of his soldiers, also dressed in Earth clothing, waving to him. Apparently the man had found something interesting.
The Second Meeting
Katara was greatly relieved by their success at freeing the earthbenders kept captive by the Fire Nation. She'd felt truly awful when Haru had been arrested because of her, and so it made her feel good that they'd set that wrong to rights. Better still, they'd freed the whole prison, so she was in great spirits as she went shopping.
She was wandering through the market, when she was startled by a familiar face. It was that boy who'd said she was pretty on Kyoshi. He'd seemed completely tongue-tied, but he was fairly handsome, even with that scar on his face, and he'd looked very disappointed when she'd had to leave with Sokka. It was a split second decision, since he hadn't seen her, but handsome boys who thought she was pretty were pretty thin on the ground back home, and things weren't much better, now that she was travelling with Aang. "Lee!"
He didn't respond, but Katara assumed he hadn't heard her, and hurried up to him, tapping him on the shoulder, repeating his name. He turned, looking a little annoyed, saying, "I don't know who - Katara!" he responded. The annoyance seemed to fade from his face, and he asked, "What are you doing here?"
She smiled. "Shopping. We're just stopping on our way," she explained.
"Same here," he told her. "I'm just passing through on - with my uncle." He'd seemed about to say something else, then thought better of it. "I'm glad to see you again," he told her. "I . . . uh . . ." He looked adorably confused.
Being a risk-taker, Katara suggested, "I don't have to find my brother for a while yet. Would you like to have some tea?" She pointed at the tea shop across the street. "It'll be nice to talk to someone who's not obsessed with furry animals."
He grinned at her, and made an incredibly elaborate and elegant bow, and said, "Oh, after you, m'lady."
Katara found herself blushing. For just a moment, she felt like a princess, and it was a really nice feeling. Soon they were settled in the tea shop, talking about this and that. She told him all about her Gran and her dad, and he talked about his uncle. She sensed there was a story behind why he didn't want to talk about his parents, but she wasn't talking about her mother, so fair was fair.
The conversation ranged from scrolls they'd read, it turned out they had both read as many of the Tales of Ming Tsu as they could get their hands on, and he was particularly jealous of the antique scroll of her gran's that she'd read. So they chatted about the stories of adventure, who their favourite characters were and agreed that Ming Tsu and Lao Tien should have gotten on with things and gotten married in the third scroll instead of waffling about their feelings.
They also agreed the pair shouldn't have visited the seer, it was completely obvious the visions were fakes, and had a delightful time debating the quality of the fight scenes. It was as he gestured expansively, illustrating some point about the minutiae of a swordfight that she saw a familiar flash of blue at his wrist. Before she even though, Katara had grabbed his hand, bringing it toward her. "What?" he asked, looking quite bewildered.
"My necklace!" she exclaimed. "This is my necklace! Where did you get it?"
He blinked for a moment, then said, "I found it. On the . . . on the Fire Nation prison ship. The one the earthbenders escaped from." He looked a little angry as he said it.
"Oh," Katara said. "I . . . I just noticed I'd lost it after we left, and-"
"You were on that ship?" he demanded. "What were you doing there?"
"I . . . the soldiers mistook me for an earthbender be-"
She didn't have a chance to finish her sentence as he was on his feet, next to her chair and started checking her over, clearly looking for injuries. "Are you okay?" he demanded.
"I'm fine," she told him soothingly. "We all managed to get away fine."
He shook his head angrily. "It's one thing to take potential combatants and put them somewhere they won't cause trouble, but to take a girl . . ." he trailed off, looking extremely irate.
"It's wrong no matter what," she snapped. "None of them were doing anything to the Fire Nation, they just took them away from their families because they might do something. It's cruel and horrible."
He flushed and looked away, looking ashamed. "I'm sorry," he muttered.
"I'm sorry too," she said. "I know what you meant and I shouldn't have snapped."
They both smiled tentatively and talked a while longer, but the moment had been lost, and they both had places to be anyhow. "I have to go find my uncle," he told her after insisting on paying for both their tea and snacks. "Maybe . . . maybe I'll see you around?" he said, hopefully.
Katara smiled, feeling just as hopeful. "Well, it wasn't all that likely we'd run into each other here, so maybe we will." Feeling very bold, she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek before saying goodbye.
He turned bright red, but as she turned to leave, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back into his arms. "Lee? What are-"
"Since I don't know if I'll ever get this chance again," he interrupted her. Before she could ask what that meant, he kissed her. On the lips. Like in a romance scroll or something. When they finally broke apart, he said, "Okay. Now I really hope I'll see you again."
She was only able to stammer out an appropriate farewell and watched her handsome friend get lost in the crowd.
The Third Meeting
Zuko was running the encounters with the Avatar over and over in his head as he paced around the little town they'd chugged to after all the damage Zhao's blockade had given him. He was again dressed in Earth clothes, having decided after the first meeting with Katara that he liked the relative anonymity the clothes gave him, rather than creating a trail of rumours about Fire Nation for Zhao to follow.
It meant he was able to wander the town aimlessly as he tried to figure out who the third member of the Avatar's little party was. Whoever they were, they were also Water Tribe, like the boy, but they'd been kept just out of his sightline the whole time, only brief flashes of blue letting him note there was someone there at all. For a moment, he considered Katara. Everywhere the Avatar had been, there she was.
No. That was ridiculous, he told himself. It was just coincidence.
Just as it was coincidence that, when he looked up, there she was in the market. "Katara!" He eagerly raced up to her. She was different from the girls he'd known before he was banished. She was fun and funny and actually seemed interested in what he had to say. She turned and smiled when she saw who it was.
"Lee!" Somehow they wound up hugging and Zuko decided he quite liked it as a greeting for her. "What are you doing here? Your uncle's business brought you here?"
It was a good excuse. "Yeah," he told her. "Our ship took some damage so we're here for repairs and reprovisioning."
"We just wound up having to take a detour," she told him. Then she smiled and said, "You know, I've been out all morning. Maybe we should go for some lunch?"
They ambled comfortably around until they found somewhere to eat. They shared tales of travel misadventures and ate off each other's plates. "Hey! Eat your own noodles," he said, lightly slapping at her hand with his chopsticks.
"But yours look so much tastier," she complained, parrying with her own chopsticks and making a run at his noodles again. Soon they were giggling like children as they sparred over the table with the utensils. He took his revenge for the theft of his noodles by taking part of her egg pie, she took some of his chicken pig, he stole some of her mango - it was a lot of fun.
When they'd finished they walked the market, holding hands and looking at the wares. Eventually she looked at the sun's position and said regretfully, "Oh. I didn't notice how late it was. I have to go."
He felt a little downcast. It had been a wonderful afternoon. He hadn't even thought about the Avatar once. "Oh. So . . . until next time then?" he asked her, hopefully. They'd run into each other often enough now that it was worth hoping for.
"You can count on it. In fact," she told him with a grin, "I think I owe you something from the last time we met."
"What's that?"
She kissed him.
Zuko happily let his eyes slide closed and wrapped his arms around her waist. This was perfection. They broke apart, breathing hard, and she said, "Until next time."
He happily wandered back to the ship and flopped down onto his bed, not thinking about the Avatar, but what he was going to do the next time he ran into Katara.
The Fourth Meeting
Katara was grousing, down by the water, irritated with herself for being so incompetent, irritated with Aang for being so talented, irritated with Sokka for being right about the scroll, irritated with the pirates for dropping this temptation in her path and just plain irritated with everything in the whole world.
"Stupid . . . water . . . work with me," she groused at it as she tried, again, to make a water whip.
A familiar voice spoke up behind her. "I thought I'd find you here."
She shrieked in surprise before whipping around. "Lee? What are you doing sneaking up on me like that?" Then she frowned. "And how did you know I was here?"
He was leaning against a tree looking annoyingly handsome. "Uncle dragged me shopping, and I heard one of the vendors say something about a water tribe girl stealing a scroll. I had a hunch it was you." He pushed away from the tree and ambled towards her. "You're a waterbender?"
She sighed and just plopped onto the ground, feeling exhausted. "Not a very good one. There weren't any other benders at home to teach me. So that's why we're going north. To learn waterbending."
Lee had joined her on the riverbank, picking up the scroll and looking over the movements on it. "So you stole the scroll, hoping to be able to learn something?"
"Yes," she told him. "I feel terrible, even if it was from pirates, but I just . . . I want to learn so badly."
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and squeezed briefly. "Can I make a suggestion?" he said. "Not that I know anything about waterbending, of course."
"What?" she asked, a little sourly.
Lee pulled away from her, and Katara instantly regretted her attitude. She'd liked his arm on her shoulders, and she'd liked leaning into his nice, warm body. "I was thinking you should work on the movements until you know them. So that when you actually try bending, you don't have to think about that, and how you're moving, but just the bending."
"I . . ." she trailed off, thoughtfully. "That makes sense. Thanks Lee!" She bounded to her feet. "Just let me see if I can get this one move. Okay?"
He heaved a deep sigh. "Okay. I came here to spend time with you, though. Not to sit here alone, lonely, bereft . . ." he trailed off, looking at her hopefully.
For the first time that day, Katara felt no longer annoyed. "Just a bit of practice. I promise," she told him. Then she sternly told herself that she could practice when he wasn't there, but she couldn't spend time with him if she was practicing.
Lee helped her anyhow. He sat there, the scroll open on his knees, letting her know if she needed to shift her stance a little or lift an arm higher or lower. It seemed like no time at all before she instinctively reached out, collecting the water from the river and sending it out in a perfect thin stream to snap a branch off a tree. She let go of her control and squealed happily, throwing herself into his arms. "Thank you!"
"You're very welcome," he told her. "Actually, that was more fun than I thought it would be."
She pulled back and looked him in the eye, asking, "What do you mean?"
A jokingly over the top lascivious smile followed. "I got to watch you bend," he told her, wagging his eyebrows.
Katara rolled her eyes and smacked him lightly on the chest in reproof. "Boys," she snorted.
"And after all my help, you wound me," he joked.
Then they sat down and watched the moonlight on the riverface, chatting about things. The long day caught up with Katara however, and she found herself drifting. Half-aware, she resettled herself against her comfortable, warm, nicely contoured pillow. She woke up just before sunrise to the feel of Lee kissing her.
Katara blinked and realised she'd fallen asleep practically draped over Lee. He had just sat there, letting her sleep on him all night. She bolted up, blushing in her embarrassment. "I'm so sorry," she squeaked.
He stretched, and told her, "It's fine." He gave her that same stupid, overdone, goofy smirk from before and said, "Now I can tell people you slept with me."
Rolling her eyes, Katara said, "Do you think about anything else?"
"What? You're really pretty and I like you," he protested.
That made her blush again, this time with pleasure at the compliment. "Thanks, Lee. I've got to get back to the others." Then she scrambled off. It was only when she was back with Aang and Sokka that she realised she hadn't made any plans to meet up with him again later.
The Fifth Meeting
The storm had been terrible, and Zuko was in pieces trying to repress the shakes that were working their way out from somewhere behind his breastbone. They landed the ship and he hastily disembarked, just grabbing the bag of his Earth clothes and getting off the ship before he humiliated himself in front of the men and his uncle.
He changed, shoving his regular clothes into the bag and searching for somewhere to get away. That was when Fortune shone down on him. As he hurried down the forest path in search of certain privacy, he slammed into a small figure in blue, sending them both to the ground. "Watch-" he started to snap. "Katara?" he gasped.
"Lee," she said. Somehow she looked like he felt. "Oh, Lee!" she cried and threw herself at him. Instinctively Zuko wrapped his arms around her, breathing in the now-familiar scent of her hair. She was sobbing into his chest, telling him about some boy named Jet who'd tried to kill a village full of Fire Nation citizens just because they were there, and nearly losing her brother to the storm.
"Shh. It's okay," he murmured into her hair. Still, he felt his own shakes and sobs coming out, and slowly he went from being the comforter, to the comforted. "I . . . the helmsman . . . he nearly died because I was so stupid. Why didn't I listen to Uncle?"
"But he didn't die, and everyone's okay, right?" she murmured, petting him gently. From anyone else, Zuko would have yanked the hand away in annoyance at the implicit condescension. But this was Katara. He just burrowed into her more.
"I just . . . I was so scared, Katara." She soothed away the last of his shakes and finally he was able to sit up properly. "We're a pair, aren't we?"
She smiled back at him. "I'm starting to think this is Fate," she said. "We keep running into each other."
"I think we need to at least try to make plans to meet next time," Zuko told her. "I'm really tired of leaving and thinking this is the last time." Suddenly, sitting next to her wasn't enough, and Zuko reach out, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her against him and onto his lap as he settled his back against a tree trunk. She wriggled in his grasp, making him tighten his arms to keep her from leaving, but she just resettled herself more comfortably, putting her head in just the right spot on his chest for him to rest his chin on her head.
"Well," she said, "Do you know where you're going next? I'll see if our routes are anywhere close to the same."
"We're heading north," Zuko told her. "Like you."
Like the Avatar.
He shook that thought away. She wasn't with the Avatar, because that would make her an enemy. And she wasn't his enemy, so she couldn't be with the Avatar. It was that simple.
Eventually they settled on a meeting place and happily curled up together. Zuko talked about his uncle's stupid missing Pai Sho tile and the stupid shopping trip he'd had to go on where his uncle had walked away with a pile of junk and no tile. Katara told him about her brother's meat obsession. "It's like I'm travelling with one person who eats only meat and another who eats only vegetables. I have to do all the cooking and it's driving me nuts," she complained.
"Maybe you should make one really big bowl of stew and tell them they should just pick through it themselves."
She giggled. "That makes more sense than not. But I think my brother would complain that I was trying to cheat him out of his share of food."
They talked a while longer, but this time it was Zuko who had to regretfully say, "It's getting late, and I need to get back to the ship. Uncle will worry."
"I should probably go too," she said, and stood, stretching. Zuko watched her avidly out of the corner of his eye as he did so as well. Suddenly he noticed something.
"Are you watching me stretch?" he asked, a little teasingly.
Katara blushed. "I . . . so what if I am? You're watching me stretch," she said defensively.
"Watch all you want," Zuko said, and tried to lean seductively against the tree and stretch at the same time. It didn't work and he fell over. That made her burst into giggles. When he glared at her, she tried to suppress them, but failed.
"I'm sorry," she said. "You just . . . and then you fell." Her hand was over her mouth, and Zuko felt a little less annoyed, just because she was at least trying not to laugh.
"Hmph," he grumbled. Nonetheless, he couldn't stay mad at her. She just looked so pretty and appealing. "I demand recompense for the humiliation," he told her, smirking a little.
"Meaning what?" she asked.
"Meaning this," Zuko told her and did like they did in the romance scrolls, pulling her dramatically against him, kissing her hard and trying to lean her over backwards, which was a lot harder than it sounded.
She squirmed away from him and Zuko could feel himself pouting. "It sounds better in the scrolls."
"You are just too cute," she said, and kissed him again. This time, without his attempts at romance, it was a lot better.
They said goodbye, and Zuko went back to his ship in far better spirits, changing into his regular clothes and planning out how to hide a calendar counting the hours until he saw her again, from his uncle's keen eyes.
The Sixth Meeting
Katara was still sick, but she'd promised Lee she'd meet him in town, and she didn't want to let him think she'd stood him up, and she also didn't want to deal with what Aang and Sokka would do if they found out she had a sort-of boyfriend.
So she crawled out of bed while Aang was out and Sokka was dozing, left them a note saying she wanted some space from stupid boys and slowly made her way to the inn she was supposed to meet Lee at. It took her a very long time to get there, and she was pretty sure she was late. When she got in, she spotted him sitting at a table, looking impatient, and staggered over, flopping into a chair and dropping her head to the table with a thud.
"You're late," he said, ungraciously. When she peeled her head back up off the table to fix him with what passed for a glare in her current condition, his eyes widened. "You look awful. Are you okay?" he asked. He placed a hand over hers, then tightened it. "Your hand is ice cold."
"I'm sick, okay?" she groused. Letting her head fall back into her arms, she told him, "My brother got sick, then I caught it, then our friend insisted that we had to suck on these hibernating frogs to get better, and I didn't want you to think I'd stood you up, okay?" To her horror, she felt tears welling up.
Lee squeezed her hand comfortingly for a moment, then said, suddenly. "Just a sec, I'll be right back, I promise." His nice warm hand vanished, and Katara couldn't even bring herself to pick her head up to see what he was doing. A moment later, however, he was back. "Hang on," was the only warning she had before he'd slipped one arm under her knees and the other behind her back, picking her up easily.
"Wha-?" Her head came up and she looked around as she suddenly felt weightless, carried in very strong arms. "Where are you taking me?"
"I'm renting a room for the afternoon, and you're going to stay in bed," he told her. "I've ordered some chicken lizard soup for you."
Katara sniffled a little, and it wasn't all due to her illness, either. He was just so nice. "Thank you," she told him, and wrapped her arms around his neck and pressing a kiss to his shoulder, which was the only part of him she could kiss right then.
He carried her into a nice little private room, and put her on the bed. Then he insisted on taking her shoes off for her, and tucked her in. "Better?" he asked. "I don't get sick a lot, but I remember my mother doing this when I was little."
"Much better," she told him. Appa was soft and warm, but he smelled like the bison he was. Sokka snored and Aang tried to help, but he was terrible at being restful. The only thing that might make it better was, "Lee?"
"Yeah?" he said, from where he'd poked his head out the door to collect the soup from the innkeeper.
"Would you . . . nevermind," she said as he handed her the soup. "Thanks."
"Um . . . okay," he said, perching next to her on the bed. "You're welcome."
Having his extremely warm body so close and yet so far was maddening, so Katara sipped at her soup a few times, then wriggled over to Lee and curled up against him anyhow. It was awkward, but he was so nice and warm.
"Katara?"
"Hmm?" She took another sip.
"Aren't you uncomfortable?" he asked.
"You're all warm," Katara told him, and briefly burrowed her cold nose into his shoulder to warm it up. He gave a put-upon sigh, and took her soup away for a moment, then rearranged them both so that he was sitting behind her, leaning against the pillows, while she was curled up against his chest with his arms around her and the covers over them both.
"Better?" he asked, handing her back the soup.
"I think I love you," she told him jokingly, then froze. They were in a relationship, really. It was kind of off and on, and they never knew when they'd meet up next, but . . . and it was too soon to say it, and what if he took it wrong and . . . "I . . . uh . . . I mean, that's really nice," Katara stuttered out.
"Thanks," he said hoarsely. Somehow, she knew it wasn't just for the compliment.
Trying to ease the awkwardness a little, Katara sat up and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "I'd kiss you properly, but I don't want to get you sick with this," she told him.
That afternoon they didn't talk, she just dozed in Lee's arms, warm, comfortable and safe. He didn't ask anything of her, just held her and occasionally pressed his lips to the crown of her head.
All good things come to an end, and Lee gently prodded her awake. "Sorry, Katara," he told her. "But I have to go, and I bet you do too."
Yawning, she noted that the sun was indeed, getting low. "You're right." She sat up regretfully. "Some date this was."
He quirked a small grin at her. "I dunno. It wasn't so bad. You slept with me again, after all."
Katara rolled her eyes, but she felt a million times better than she had that morning, thanks to Lee, so she didn't say anything to that. "We'll be heading up close to the Northwestern peninsula," she told him. "Will you be anywhere near there?"
He frowned, and said, "I think, maybe." He named a town there. "You want to try to meet there in two weeks?"
Katara half closed her eyes, recalling the map in her head. "I think I can manage that."
He smiled. "Good."
"Hopefully I'll be better soon so I can give you a proper thank-you for this," Katara gestured around the room.
"It was nothing," he protested.
"Renting me a room at an inn for a day just so I can have a bed to rest in isn't nothing," she told him tartly. "And I won't let you downplay that this must have cost you a lot of gold to be done so fast."
He looked flummoxed at that, and Katara briefly wondered how much money he actually had available. He and his uncle were travelling an awful lot with their ship, which clearly had a crew. Maybe they were wealthy merchants. It would explain a lot.
They said goodbye and Katara trudged back, and told her brother and Aang that her rapid recovery could be attributed to not being around stupid boys all day. Which was kind of true.
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