The Prince's Choice (Zutara)

XXIX

Sorry it's so late y'all. I've had the worst headache all day and it was making it worse looking at a screen. After a long bath, lots of water, and lots of napping I think it's okay now...

So, a reviewer on a different site pointed out that Katara could just heal the hickey with her healing powers. I considered trying to write up an explanation like Katara wasn't that good at healing to fix it or it was in an awkward spot for her to reach or because her hands were burned she didn't want to try healing her neck lest something bad happen, but I'll be honest...it was just a moment in which I forgot XD So, yeah, it's a small continuity thing but I thought I'd be up front 'bout it.

--

Katara tried all her makeup, but nothing was strong enough to cover the very obvious hickey on the side of her neck.

So, she really only had one option: to hide out in her room in shame until the mark didn't look quite so violently purple and could be covered by makeup. Perhaps if she'd ever worn a scarf before this, she could have passed it off as her usual fashion statement, but as it was, even wearing the scarf to go to the bathroom made it itch like mad.

She wondered if Zuko even knew he'd done that. He had to; how could he not?

Luckily, Toph was nowhere to be found, because she would be ruthless with her teasing if she figured it out. It was a small miracle that Toph was blind, because Katara was almost sure that she could hide it from Toph, if the occasion called for it. If Sokka was around, though, then he'd either never let her live it down (ugg, no wonder Toph and Sokka had become such good friends) or he'd go and break Zuko's nose. Perhaps both.

Only a handful of other girls asked about Katara while she was in hiding. She had planned another training session with Eva, but claimed she was feeling under the weather and didn't want to infect anyone else. Eva was immediately worried about another poison scare, but Katara did a good job of faux sniffling and sneezing to ease her worry. Eva managed to spread the news around to the other girls, which took care of most of the problem. Suki and Alcina knocked on her door during the day to ask if she needed anything, but Katara just pretended to be asleep.

Luckily, she was not without things to do. Zuko had zero sense of organization. Or, maybe he usually did, but this whole event was throwing him off. Either way, she spent a long time going through the tree's worth of paper he had handed off to her, trying to imagine the most logical way to sort and bind these documents. Some papers would need to be taken in and out, while others were just needed as references. Katara also unabashedly examined each sheet to its full potential, knowing she was going to squeeze herself into this problem in other ways, whether or not Zuko wanted her to!

Half-way through the day, Aiga appeared with more papers that Zuko had been unable to gather in their short time to dump on Katara, which just gave her more things to organize. Her room looked like a library had exploded.

She enjoyed it, though. Not just because it gave her a view into the life of Zuko that no other girl was getting, but also because she enjoyed the challenge of having to create something. She wasn't the inventor in her family, that was Sokka. She, more than once, nearly called him in to help, but thought about having to explain the scarf or just let him see the hickey and immediately banished such thoughts. No; Katara could figure this out herself.

Aiga was overly helpful with fetching random things for Katara to assemble a book, including scraps of leather hide from other books, twine, glue, paint, and an assortment of other supplies Katara didn't know she needed until she saw it in the bin.

She spent the next day and a half working on this. Every so often, Aiga would appear to fetch a handful of papers that Zuko needed for this meeting or that, but would always bring them back. After the first twelve hours, her neck looked much better, making Katara hopeful that by the next couple days, the heaviest of makeup that she owned would be able to effectively cover it.