Contrarium (Zutara)

0. Introduction

To him, she's warmer than he is despite being from the south pole. 

Katara stands there in Zuko's arms, and everything suddenly feels so nice to him. The sunset is warm, she's warm, the air is warm. Everything is okay, for once. Eveything is nice after a day of chaos. 

"Zuko." Katara mutters. She's his friend now. He helped her get closure and she's his friend now. How absolutely insane is that? The ex-prince never thought he'd have real friends. He always consider Mai and Ty Lee his friends, but Mai was his girlfriend and Ty Lee never talked to him outside of Azula. If those are friends, he doesn't want friends at all. 

"Katara." He replies. She lets go of him and steps back smiling. 

"Thank you." The waterbender says. "For being there for me today."

"Anytime." He smiles. Not enough for her to see, but it's a smile. This is what friends are like? Maybe he does want friends. 

What a sight, the crown prince of the fire nation befriending a waterbender from the southern witer tribe. It's a bit weird, even to the members of their rag-tage group of heroes. After such a long time of hating and wanting them all dead, it's so odd to him that they can be friends. 

They're both silent for a moment. "Why didn't you kill him?" Zuko asks. 

"I'm not sure. Because I'm not mean?" She sighs and sits down in the grass. Zuko sits across from her with his legs crossed. "Aang always says all life is precious. I guess I realized that."

"I understand that." He says. He wouldn't have said that a few months ago. He would have said that he deserves to die, that if she wasn't going to kill him he would. Realizing this, realizing that he understands what she's saying and relates to it, make him realize that he's not different anymore. "I think you did the right thing Katara."

"Thank you, Zuko. I couldn't have done it without your help." She smiles again. 

"So, was our feild trip life changing?" Zuko jokes. 

"I think so," She laughs. "Was it as fun as the others?"

"I think seeing you stop rain was pretty badass, but busting a bunch of people out of prison takes the take for sure." 

"Understandable." She nods and the two of them burst out in laughter. 

It's nice. Nice to not be alone, nice to have a friend, nice to laugh. Zuko hasn't expierenced this before. Who knows if he'll ever expierence it again? He looks at this girl across from him, no, his friend across from him. She's just laughing. She's not scared, she's not preparing to attack, she's not laughing at him. 

As the two benders joke around, a voice can be heard from above them. "You guys are back?" The Avatar glides in and lands on his feet next to the waterbender and firebender. 

"We're back." Katara stands up and brushes her clothes off. 

"So?" Aang asks. It's ovbious that he's wondering what happened. Ty Lee would do the same thing all the time when they were kids. She was nosy, Zuko always found it annoying that she had her nose in everybody's buisness. It's not the same when Aang gets curious, though. He's not nosy, he's just looking out for his friend. 

"She didn't do it." Zuko responds cooly as he pushes himself off the ground. 

"Cause she's too nice." Another voice joins them, a smaller voice. Toph. 

Zuko and Toph get along great, for some reason. Of course, she was the first one to defend him when he tried to join the group. And, he's scared of her. Who wouldn't be? She literally invented metalbending. She's intimidating. 

"Because he's a person, too." Katara answers with her usual sassiness. 

"You guys should take my advice more often." Aang laughs. 

"The last time we took your advice we ended up with this guy on our team!" Sokka appears behind Toph with Suki. They probably walked up here together but Zuko didn't notice. 

"Well if that's what happens when you take Aang's advice," Zuko laughs. If this were a few months ago, he would have burned Sokka to a crisp. "Then you should always take Aangs advice." 

They all laugh, even Toph. They all have fun. 

They're friends, and Zuko doesn't want it any other way.

Author's note: Short little introduction chapter to say where we are, when this is opening up, and the realtionship's thusfar. Enjoy this little moment of peace because it's all going downhill from here bucko (Just kidding. Maybe.)