Fall of the White Lotus [Zutara/Taang]

18 | Phobia

Music: Northern Pastures, Two Steps From Hell

                         It had been a searing hot day, those three years ago, when Zuko had ascended the Dragon Throne in a grave ceremony which had made a soon-to-be seventeen-year-old the ruler of the most powerful of the remaining three nations. As the flames had risen up around the throne, separating him from his uncle, his friends, and everyone attending the ceremony, he'd felt the full weight of the world's expectations come crashing down on him. Knowing himself invisible to the onlookers, he'd bowed his head, seriously questioning his abilities to live up to it. But then he'd remembered how his uncle had never ceased to believe in him, and he'd found the courage to look up. To his surprise, the first person whose eyes he'd met when the flames had died weren't his uncle's but Katara's, looking at him with an expression of genuine gratitude and encouragement. He'd hoped she'd noticed the inconspicuous smile he'd flashed her in response.

The sacred atmosphere of the coronation ceremony had eventually given way to a more festive air during the banquet in the Fire Nation Royal Palace. Zuko had found that the occasion did not call for a celebration - after all, only two days had passed since the Hundred Year War had ended with his father's defeat. But his uncle had insisted that it was important to hold a ball to establish his position among the Fire Nation nobility. Zuko had given in and a dance had concluded the relatively modest banquet. It was during this ball that he'd taught Katara the Fire Nation dance they would participate in at her father's investiture ball a few months later.

When the appropriate moment had finally come for the Fire Lord to leave the ball, the whole of Team Avatar had escaped the Fire Nation Royal Palace with him. The next day, their paths would lead them separate ways and they'd all felt the need to be together as a group for the last time. A very crowded Appa had flown them to the nearby beach, a private one, which belonged to the Royal Family.

Zuko still remembered Mai's reluctance to climb onto the huge bison and her withdrawn silence during the rest of the evening. She had merely been sitting on the beach and had watched Team Avatar as they had discarded their formal robes and dove into the sea, finally allowing their excitement to take over. Far away from the rush of celebration, the realization had finally begun to sink in that the Hundred Year War was over for real and that they had survived.

It had been a beautiful night. The velvet sky had been studded with glistening stars and an almost imperceptible new moon. Everyone else had already been splashing around in the sea when Zuko had decided to leave a sulking Mai to her own devices and had finally taken a run for the lukewarm water as well, looking forward to the relaxation it would bring him.

He'd stayed underwater for a long time, only to surface when his lungs had threatened to burst. Then he'd inhaled deeply like he'd never breathed in before, feeling the tension and anguish from the previous years roll down his body with the water. Tomorrow, he would be burdened with the concerns that came with ruling a nation, but he'd felt liberated in that moment.

"Zuko!" a voice, clear and familiar, had then called out to him from very close by.

Startled, he'd spun around to the sound.

He still didn't know where Katara had suddenly come from, but there she'd been, standing right in front of him and watching him with an unreadable expression in her brilliantly shining eyes, water dripping from her gleaming curls and body.

She looks like drops of water taking the form of a young woman. The thought had involuntarily shot through his head as his heart had skipped a beat. Well, she was a waterbender after all.

Her eyes had glistened in excitement, and he'd vaguely noted that this was actually the first time she gave him - Zuko - one of her huge, warm smiles that she reserved for her closest friends. He'd found that he liked it.