Chapter Text
Silver streams of ethereal and pure water twirled between her fingers as she drew it from the vile. Bending isn’t anything mysterious or as Sokka says, “magical”, but the feel of this water has Katara feeling a sense of wonder. Its essence felt like it called to her very chi, tranquil and powerful. Katara could admire the spirit oasis water all she wanted to, but she had offered to heal her enemy, and she isn’t one to go back on her word.
Zuko stood before her, peering down at his former enemy in curiosity and suspicion. He was confused, very confused. Why would the avatar’s fierce waterbender companion offer to heal him? Did she not remember how he fought her in her sister tribe’s very spirit oasis?
The cave they were thrown into reflected eerie greens of all shades, casting the pair of benders in an emerald hue. The cave had a certain energy that Zuko couldn’t quite place, but it was unsettling.
He glanced at the water orb floating above her hand, she waited for him, for his permission. His eyes flicked to her, finally meeting her gaze and it was as if a tide shifted. For the first time in the months since he’d chased and fought her, he really looked at her. Hues of blue twisted and melted around her iris, like a hurricane in the middle of a dark ocean. He saw a force to be reckoned with, but also passion, and a desire to make a change. He saw himself in those eyes, and he saw her. He saw them.
Her eyes flickered down at her water, then back to him in silent question. Finally, he tore his gaze from her eyes and took a small step back, suddenly aware of the minimal space between them.
“You can try, but I doubt it will work.” He says with a slight shrug. Without warning, she caresses his scarred cheek, checking where she should start and how. Zuko stood frozen, afraid to disrupt her analysis and shocked by the warm touch. He let her turn his jaw up and then down, all while he stared at her in slight disbelief. The only person he let touch him was his uncle, and even he didn’t touch his face like this. Let alone his token of banishment.
“I think I’ll start with your eye, maybe I can get it to function better.” She says with an air of determination as she sets about her work. “This might feel weird, but I need you to keep your eye open.” Zuko nodded and she raised half of the water away, bending the rest back into her vile for safekeeping. Zuko took a mental deep breath, suddenly realizing that this is happening. She slowly raised the droplets to his face, gently pushing the pure water around his eye. Zuko was blinded by a soft blue light illuminating from the water on his eye. Katara must have noticed and gave him a reassuring look. “It glows when the healing process is activated through bending.” She explained, and he gave a slight nod.
The water was cold when it touched his eye, and as she said it would, it felt weird. But he kept his eye open dutifully, it was all she asked of him. There were twinges here and there as she worked, but felt no pain. She bent the water around his eye, and then worked on his socket and skin surrounding it. She weaved the water through his eye lids to heal its squint. The water was skillfully pushed and pulled through the damaged flesh, boosting a long forgotten healing process.
Zuko felt more and more confident that Katara might actually be healing it when his vision grew larger. Though he still couldn’t see due to the spirit water blurring his vision. He blinked a few times and she took a step back to check her progress. A small smile played on her lips.
“What?” He asked and drew his hand up to his eye, unsure what to even say or do. His left eye felt warm from the healing, and couldn’t see properly through it due to excess water in his bowels. He felt around his eye, carefully examining it. The scar was still there, but there was an unmistakable change about his eye. It felt less downturned and pulled tight, significantly so.
Zuko peered down at Katara with a gaze of wonder in his eyes. She smiled at him, a genuine and sweet smile. The smile he’d seen she would give the avatar, her brother and their little angry earthbender companion. Something weighed between their locked gazes and the cave filled with silence and anticipation. What was he supposed to do now? He should probably thank her, that’s what uncle would say. Her smile faded, but her gaze never wavered, something replaced her feeling of pride at fixing his eye. She looked at Zuko and noted that he was taller than her, that he had strength, and that he was a teen like her. She didn’t know exactly about Zuko’s past, but she knew that he was a deeply misguided child. Cast out by his family at the age she was not too long ago. Her gaze filled with sorrow, and appreciation. She wanted to ask him if he had changed his mind about wanting to chase them, but decided that it wouldn’t be best at the moment.
The cave radiated a comforting approval between the two of them. Zuko’s face went passive once more as their gazes met again. They saw each other not as foes, but as equals in strength and determination. Zuko wanted to regain what he had lost years ago, and Katara wanted world peace and equality. Katara knew who she was and what she wanted, Zuko saw that in her eyes and admired her for that. He wanted to be like her in that aspect, he wanted to know his destiny. He knew that he was royalty, and giving up and settling down in the Earth Kingdom sounded like a waist of his bloodline. Plus he hated how some of the people lived, but admired them for their hard work. Zuko didn’t know if there would be a chance for him to go home again, and thinking about his birthright being restored seemed impossible. Though looking at Katara now has him considering a different path, one he never anticipated.
They both started to say something, but no words came out as a crash sounded beside them. Their heads jerked towards the commotion that was drawn from a smashed cave wall. Through fading dust appeared the avatar and… his uncle? Confusion was stacked onto his conflicted emotions reeling through his head as Iroh drew his nephew into a hug.
The avatar glared at Zuko over Katara’s embrace, but Iroh held him tighter to keep him from running after her and the avatar. Katara gave Zuko an apologetic and hopeful look before she ran with her friend.
“Zuko… your eye.” Iroh says softly, sounding dumbfounded. “Is it bad?” He replied gruffly, brushing his fingertips over the eye again. He couldn’t help but think about that slight upturn she did with her mouth when she stopped to check her work. A smile, but whether or not it was genuine made him curious. For all he could feel and see at the moment, she could have royally fucked up his face.
“Nephew.” Iroh says with a half smile, breaking his nephew’s train of thought. “Katara healed the eye.”
Finally, the spirit water clears and Zuko looks at his uncle like he did before his eye was given a permanent squint. Katara had healed him. His astonishment paved a way to a foreign emotion. He couldn’t quite place it, but he needed to see her again.
A puzzle piece in his mind was sealed into place that week. After he’d helped his sister take down the avatar and control Ba-Sing-Se. He saw the fearful and enraged face of betrayal written on her face. It pained him, but he knew what he needed to do.
Zuko knew the moment he looked into Katara’s ocean eyes that she was now forever forged into his future. Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, his enemy and refugee. Friend to the only threat to his father’s rein. Zuko knew who she was, he looked forward to finding more about her. Everything she was, he wanted to know about. He wanted to know her favorite food, if she liked to read, whether she knew poetry. Most of all he wanted her to himself, to keep her safe and to smile at him again. He saw her with a Fire Lady crown on her topknot.
She would be his destiny, now all he had to do was retrieve her.