031. Jewelry - Zutara

Another day in the Northern Water Tribe, Zuko thought as he grimaced, and the cold. A cloud of steam escaped his clenched jaw with a hiss. Both hands were wrapped around him to preserve every little bit of heath his body was radiating. Even with all these Water Tribe clothes on – and a few layers not to forget – didn’t seem to help much, if even at all. The ex-prince was still feeling cold as he paced besides a lone stream of crystal clear water, eyes wandering over the place as he sought for Katara. Every time he would pass a habitant, Zuko would ask if they had seen the young waterbending master, but all responded by telling him they didn’t knew where she was. And finally, after half an hour of walking and searching, he had found himself before a dead end.

With an agitated sigh, Zuko turned around and strolled back the way he came in. Where could she be? The question kept ringing in his mind as his golden eyes scanned every passing hallway. All these buildings looked like the next one, all with the same colour: white. Every block of ice that represented a house looked like every centimetre was cut out exactly the same way as the next building. Zuko reached out and felt the cold surface of the iced wall. He looked at the palm of his hand and saw a small amount of snow fall from the tips of his glove that he just had scrapped from the wall.

The scent of sea water was almost hard to ignore, not that he minded. It did Zuko thinking of Katara in some way. She always had that clean scent of the sea around her every time he passed her by or when they were interacting with each other. Even the cold did him thinking of her. How Katara’s hands had felt the first time she had simply touched his arm. A cold shiver rang up his said arm at the thought and he wrapped his other hand around his upper arm as he started rubbing it half-consciously.

“…Where is she…?” Zuko said to no one in particular as he started striding off again. The sound of people having conversations and merchants screaming their prizes became more present as he passed a simple marketplace. A small kiosk which was selling all kind of small adornment caught his eyes and he decided to check it out. A woman who was somewhere in her forties gave him a weird look as Zuko passed by, but he gave the expression he was receiving no heed as the ex-prince neared the small open pavilion. Must be because of my eyes, thought Zuko with a frown.

“Good evening, sir. I presume you’re here to buy something for your girlfriend?” The question caught Zuko by surprise and he almost yelled that he had no girlfriend, but before he could say a thing his eyes met the owner of the voice: an old humble woman. Showing her his respect, he gave the woman a brief shake of the head instead.

“No, but it’s going to be a present for a dear friend of mine.”

The woman’s eyes brightened with something Zuko couldn’t register before the old woman already had her back turned to him and began searching through her wares franticly. Zuko raised his only eyebrow at this, but found a few necklaces catching his eyes before ideas behind her motive began to surface in his mind. His eyes wandered over the three ivory colored earrings which were made of some sort of coral he had never seen before. Zuko opened his mouth to ask what these things were made off but the old woman was faster.

“I think this will suit the young girl just fine.” Zuko found the old woman holding a small necklace made of blue silk with a few white emeralds in the middle. He knew by only the looks of the trinket that it wasn’t cheap.

“I don’t think I can afford it, but thank you all the same for the suggestion.” The shine in her eyes didn’t left and Zuko found this a little disturbing.

“Oh no, for you I’ll half the price. Ten silver pieces.” Zuko looked at the woman sceptical. He knew the merchant hadn’t even taken a few bronze coins of the prize, at least not by the looks of it.

“Sorry, but just as I had stated before, I don’t have the money to buy it for such a prize.” Zuko was bluffing, knowing the woman would lower the prize till he told her he had enough money. Truth to be told, he carried a few golden coins with him, but it felt like the woman was cheating with the prize with the way the necklace looked worth. Her face fell at this.

“Well, because you’re such a fine young man. How about 5 silver coins then?” Zuko resisted to smirk at this, but gave the woman a brief nod of the head so that it didn’t look suspicious.

“That, I can pay for.” And with that gave the woman the right amount of money and took the necklace from her, placing it in one of his pockets below the tick fur coat. With a simple goodbye and a wave of the hand he left to search for his “friend”.

Moments had gone by, the sun already low above the horizon. Zuko, who was unaware of the time that had past, looked up to look at the state of the sun but saw something coming in his sight entirely different: Katara. Her back was facing his direction so the ex-prince knew she couldn’t know he was there. Zuko searched for some kind of stairs to get to the higher level, and soon found one in the right corner between some pots. He swiftly marched over the stairs till he was standing at the other side of the small bridge above the water from Katara.

A small gush of wind blew, brushing against his coat and sending his hair waving. The image it created of Katara was breath-taking, how her hair curled and how she had closed her eyes like that. She looked simply beautiful.

“Katara.” Her name left his lips with a sigh, almost inaudible for the distance they where standing from one another. But she must have heard it; it had to be because Katara’s head turned to look at him. Her eyes widened with recognising.

“Zuko.” He took a few stepped towards her.

“Where have you been? Everyone was worrying sick about you.” And me. But Zuko chose to keep that out of his sentence, knowing it would turn things to become awkward. Katara’s eyes fell at the question. Zuko, who sensed something was wrong, came to stand besides her.

“What’s wrong Katara?” Her big blue eyes darted upward to finally land on his face, but never really looked him in the eye.

“I-I…” Her hiccupping turned to sobbing. Her mother’s death, the war; everything came crashing down as reality hit her with full force. Zuko’s looked at her with concern. He extended his hand and brushed her face with the fabric of his glove. She could still feel his warmth of his hand seeping through the padding the moment it touched. Katara closed her eyes as she tried to compose herself, but her agony rolled over her like a wave.

“It’s OK, you can tell me.” Zuko said in a reassuring voice. Katara wrapped both of her hands around his arm, clinging on it as it was her lifeline; the only thing that was keeping her up and breathing.

“It’s just… I don’t know what to do any more.” Zuko felt the irony because he didn’t know what to do either at the moment. If not for the giving situation, he would have laughed.  After he finally had made up his mind, he took a step closer to hold her in his arms.

“We’re all here for you Katara, you’re not alone in this.” He felt her arms wrap around his middle as Katara hugged him back. Zuko half-smiled at this and closed his eyes.

“I’m here for you.” The both of them felt like they were holding each other which what felt like an eternity, and no one felt like letting go. Zuko stroked her head, comforting Katara the best he could. Her sobs turned to sniffing after a few moments as Katara calmed down a bit. Zuko let go of her, he knew she was alright now. Her eyes were red of crying and a few tears were frozen on her face. Zuko took one glove off and traced the frozen tears with his heated fingers. The tears turned to steam at the contact and soon none were any more present on her face.

“Thanks Zuko, for just now.” Zuko simply nodded. He smiled as the thought of the bought necklace entered his thoughts. Zuko took the small jewellery from under his blue Water Tribe coat. He took her hand with his still gloved hand in his and turned it till the palm of her hand was facing upward. He placed the blue necklace in her hand.

“This is for you.” Katara’s eyes lightened up when her eyes fell on the blue necklace. Zuko could see by simply looking at her that she was speechless. Her sniffing now and then made her even somewhat cute while she was looking the adornment over. Her gaze moved to look at him in the eye, a bright smile now on her face.

“Where did you get this? These things are very expansive around here.” Zuko half-grimaced as he thought back at the humble old woman that had sold this to him for cheap because he hadn’t believed her this necklace was that expansive. He made a mental note to return some more money to the old woman if he ever saw her again.

“Prizes don’t play a part in this. I found it look great with your eyes… Err… what I meant is that it did me thinking of you, somewhat. So I thou-“ Her lips were covering his before he could finish his sentence. As soon as the kiss began, it ended. Katara retreated while looking slightly dumbfounded. The same could be said about Zuko as he looked at her with shock all written over his face.

“I’m sorry Zuko, I didn’t-“ Now it was her turn to be cut off as Zuko now began the kiss.. She turned her head a little to her left while at the same time giving Zuko better access to her mouth. The moment she felt his tongue press softly against her lips she had opened them, allowing the ex-prince full entry. Their tongues brushed against each other, a low groan escaped his trout. His arms snaked around her waist as he held her in his strong arms. Katara’s arms embraced him around his neck as she closed her eyes.

They broke apart, both gasping for air their longs craved for. Zuko nor Katara dared to speak as they slowly regained their breathing. Now both longs full with oxygen and fully composed they looked at each other.

“Maybe it would be better if we headed off towards the others. With them worrying and all…” Zuko said almost half-mindedly, a small blush still present on his face. Katara, who was still blushing like mad, found the snow-covered ground much more interesting gave only a nod of the head as a reply. Taking her hand in his, they took off. The whole walk was in silence as both minds were racing from the event that took place atop of that small bridge.

No one knew that a simple somebody had watched them, smiling as she did.

“Heh, I knew it was for his girlfriend. Kids these days…”