Zutara Week 2020
Day 4 Celestial
Legends and Fables
Zuko dispersed the fire as Katara cleaned the dishes from their dinner. Usually their silences were comfortable, easy, understanding. Right now the silence was tense. This was the last night before they infiltrated the Fire Nation to face his sister. Everyone had gone their separate ways after assigned a task, so it was just them two. It could be their last night alive. There was much still unsaid between them.
He could see Katara gazing off into nothing, biting her lip, with her tense shoulders up near her ears. He looked around for something to distract her from their mission and impending doom...
"The stars sure are beautiful tonight."
God, the stars? That was like barely a step above talking about the weather!
It did make Katara glance up though, and her shoulders relaxed as she slowly smiled. "Yeah, they are. Let's stargaze for a bit?"
Zuko nodded, glad to have pulled her away from her thoughts. They laid down in a soft patch of grass, opposite each other so their heads were next to each other.
"Here, lift your head up for a second." Katara ordered. Zuko complied, surprised when Katara scooted up so that her head rested on his shoulder, and his head rested on her shoulder. She lifted her long hair to the side, and Zuko could feel the strands on his arm. "This is more comfortable. Sokka and I used to do this together in the South Pole when we were younger."
Zuko smiled, though she couldn't see it. "My mother and I would stargaze, too. She told me about all the different constellations and their stories."
Katara's face shifted towards him, causing their cheeks to rub together for a moment before she settled back. Zuko hoped she couldn't feel the warmth from his blush.
"Tell me a story." Katara nudged him softly.
Zuko hummed as his eyes traced different constellations, looking for a familiar one that he could remember the story for. He lifted his finger to trace the outline of one. "Here," He spoke, "Follow my finger. This is the constellation of Agni. You can kind of see a man with fire in his hands."
Katara watched his finger and nodded, finding the shape of it. He continued, "Agni is the spirit that taught us firebending, and gave us our inner flame. He's a shapeshifter, so he could appear as a man or as a dragon. The story goes that in the first civilization, they worshipped him. He protected them with his fire against outsiders, and his light and heat gave them life. He taught them how to wield the fire themselves, because he couldn't always be there for them. And that's the origin of fire bending. Supposedly."
She reached out her own hand to trace a constellation for him. "See it looks like a human with a fin? It's said there was a young waterbender who loved the water so much, she eventually grew a tail so she could stay in the water forever."
They went back and forth, telling stories about the stars.
"Do you see over here it looks like a hand? And then on the other horizon there's another hand reaching back." Zuko directed her gaze. "It's two lovers, separated and never able to be together."
Katara frowned, "That's sad. We had a story about one constellation of lovers, too." Her eyes searched the skies. "There. See them holding each other? Their love was so infinite the spirits thought it should be on display forever."
Zuko laughed, "Yeah that's a much nicer story."
A yawn escaped Katara, and she unconsciously snuggled deeper into Zuko's neck. "Thanks for stargazing with me. It was cool to hear about the Fire Nation legends."
He smiled as he ran his fingers through her long tresses of hair. "The Water Tribe has some good stories, I'll give you that."
"Don't you forget it." She mumbled sleepily.
Zuko fought off his own yawn. Staring up at the celestial lights had put him oddly at peace. They might be a legend one day- about how they brought balance back to the world. He just hoped they didn't die trying.
~~~xoxo~~~
Hey friends. Sorry I didn't post yesterday! I actually had something totally different and I hated it so I trashed it and started over. I think this piece was a huge improvement. Hope you like it!
-Joy
