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Whale Tail Island turned out to be a lot further away from the random little cliff the Gaang had been forced to run away to. And the problem with that distance is that traveling across the ocean means that storms are bound to arise at any given moment.
Zuko watches the waves beneath Appa as he flies over the ocean. Years spent on a ship taught him that the ocean itself will tell the observer when a storm is coming in. He can see it now. The waves are choppy, fighting over each other as the storm arises. Zuko glances at Katara. She hasn't moved away from the reins since they left the island. The tension in her shoulders hasn't budged, either. For a moment, Zuko can't help but wonder if this storm that's about to swallow them is a result of the pain Katara is carrying across the ocean.
It isn't long before the clouds arrive. They're quiet company, dark and large enough to blot out the setting sun. Being stuck on a ship in the middle of a storm is one thing. Zuko has never been stuck on an air bison in the middle of the storm and he's not too keen on making that a first. He watches lightning bolts light up the insides of the clouds, flashes of blinding light. This one won't be an easy one to sit through.
Ahead of him, Katara doesn't seem to notice. Or, more likely, she doesn't care.
Finding the man that had killed her mother was something she desperately needed to do. Zuko watches the clouds still, his mind playing each memory over and over. She was so angry with him when he arrived - and she had every right to be. Back in Ba Sing Se, Katara had given him an olive branch. Had offered him something even his uncle had withheld. The anger Zuko carried for so long was a suit of armor for him. He knew what people thought of his scar. He knew it made him ugly. No one wanted to touch him with something so terrible marring his face.
But Katara had. She hadn't flinched, had touched him with fingers so gentle it cut right through the pain he carried. She had offered him acceptance and he had responded by throwing it to the ground and stomping all over it.
He knows now that it isn't just him Katara is so angry with. It's the Fire Nation as a whole, the war itself. She's a victim of it, too, like so many others. And yet, she still has enough goodness in her to try to help anyone that needs it, even those that aren't as deserving. Like Zuko himself. Taking Katara to find the man that had turned her life upside down seemed so simple to him. Maybe she would forgive him, maybe she wouldn't. But now she had answers to questions that had haunted her all of her life. She had a chance to heal her own wounds for once, and for Zuko, it's enough.
The clouds open up and the first few drops begin to fall. Heavy and hard, they come down quickly, drenching them all. Still, Katara doesn't notice, but Appa does, groaning his displeasure.
Zuko pushes his hair out of his eyes. He shifts to the edge of the saddle and reaches out, then lowers his hand. Instead, he clears his throat. "We need to find somewhere to land," Zuko says, "It's gonna be too hard to fly soon."
He wonders for a moment if Katara can't hear him over the rain or if she's choosing to ignore him. It doesn't matter, either way. There's no land under them yet, so they're stuck in the downpour. Zuko exhales. He finds himself grateful that he's a firebender; the internal flame he carries provides enough warmth to get him through the chill of the rain. His eyes find Katara once more. She's soaked through. There's no way she's not cold, but Zuko doesn't know how to offer her his warmth. He sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose.
What a long day it's been.
Land comes into sight after what feels like years have passed and Katara surprises Zuko by steering Appa toward it. All he can see through the rain is the shore, but the lower Appa descends, the more the shape of the land becomes visible. There's a small valley between two mountains that Katara steers them into. Appa lands with a grunt, shaking the rain off of him in vain. It's still coming down in sheets, but Zuko thinks he can make out the mouth of a cave not too far from them.
He doesn't have to say anything, though, because Appa is lumbering to it before they can dismount.
The bison just barely fits into the entrance of the cave but it's enough for him. Appa waits for his riders to dismount, then shakes himself with a rumble, spraying water across the walls. Katara bends the water out of Appa's fur with disinterested ease. Zuko watches as the mini tide rolls out of the cave, then gasps when all of the water is pulled from his clothes. The sudden dryness is jarring but very welcome. Zuko opens his mouth to thank Katara, looking up - and finds that she's walking deeper into the cave.
"Hey!" Zuko squawks, voice echoing, but there's no response. Katara is disappearing into the darkness. Zuko groans. Can't he get just one minute of peace?
Gritting his teeth, Zuko jogs after Katara. The sound of their footsteps surround them, the only acknowledgement of where they're going until Zuko conjures a flame in his hand. "Katara! Wait, where are you going?" He winces as his voice returns to them. It sounds so distorted in this small, dark space, like there are more than one of them demanding an answer.
"I don't know!"
If his voice sounded demanding, then Katara's voice sounds downright miserable. It makes Zuko's heart skip a beat. Never has he heard such tone from her. She's always been so defiant, even when she was outmatched and outnumbered. And then he hears sniffling, and alarm fills him to the brim. People don't usually cry around him - how is he supposed to comfort someone that's crying?
"I don't know," Katara repeats, voice thick, "But it's better than - better than staying still. Better than being out there."
It's familiar to him, that need to do something, anything, in order to distract himself from the misery threatening to drown him. Zuko glances over his shoulder. What's the worst that could happen? Appa is settled at the entrance of the cave; he and Katara both are master benders that can handle whatever surprises might be in this cave.
And if it'll stop Katara's tears, he might do just about anything.
"Okay." Zuko turns his back to the entrance of the cave. "Let's - let's walk, then."
The only sound for several minutes is their footsteps on the ground. It's damp, but there's no water falling over them, and nothing has jumped out at them yet, which is enough. It's surprising, too, the lack of awkwardness between them. After so many weeks of pure venom from Katara, the absence of it is relieving, and... A little unsettling. Zuko glances down at her. Katara is silent, which is what he expects, but he doesn't like it.
He's watched her with her friends. There's a brightness in Katara that's contagious. Everyone is drawn to it. He sees it with the way Aang flutters around Katara like a butterfly floats around a flower, sees it in the light in his eyes every time he watches her. He sees it when she and Suki are off in a corner, giggling with their hands locked together. The bond Katara has with her brother is something Zuko envies; it's something he'll never get with his own sister. Even Toph is softer around Katara, as though she knows she's safe enough to simply be a kid with Katara watching her back.
That light is gone now and it's absence is chilling.
He almost misses it, the tremor in Katara's shoulders. Zuko furrows his brows. She's cold. Of course - the water is gone, but its effects are not.
"Take my hand," Zuko murmurs. He holds it out, feels a flush touch his cheeks when Katara gives him a bewildered look. She doesn't want to touch him, he's sure, but he can be helpful for once. "Firebender," he explains, widening the flame in his other hand. "I can warm you up."
The silence stretches long enough that he's about to drop his hand and withdraw the invite all together, but then Katara takes his hand. His heart jumps for the second time, but he ignores it as he channels his warmth into his palm.
Their walk continues with furtive glances on his end. Slowly, Katara's trembling stops. Zuko's gaze drops to their hands. Katara's is so small in his. He hasn't considered her size since that fateful day on the outskirts of her tribe, when he'd sized her up as an enemy and nothing more. Zuko exhales a quiet breath. That day happened so long ago that it might as well have happened in another life time.
He supposes it was another life time. He's changed so much since then, he's become a brand new person.
"Why aren't you afraid of touching me?"
Zuko starts. He looks at Katara with a frown and finds her eyes locked on him. There's none of the defiance he knows is in her, only an exhausted sadness that he's all too familiar with looking back at him. Something else they have in common.
He opens his mouth to speak, to ask his own question, but Katara beats him to it. She looks away from him as she says, "You saw me back there. You saw me - blood bending. I could have killed that soldier. I wanted to kill Yon Rha. Doesn't that - it should bother you. Repulse you."
Loathing coats every word she speaks, and it makes Zuko's chest ache. He stops, stops Katara with a tug of her hand. She still won't look at him.
For several heartbeats, all Zuko can do is watch Katara. This isn't the girl he's known all this time. This isn't the vibrant young woman with enough passion to rival even the proudest of the Fire Nation, this isn't the warrior that's always matched him step for step in every battle. This isn't the Katara the world knows.
It strikes him, then, that this is a side no one has ever seen. Maybe not since she was little and had two parents to run to for comfort. This is the girl that defiance and vitality protects - vulnerable and terrified of the power she wields, terrified of the way that power could be perceived. It humbles Zuko, shakes him down to his core.
Only a few weeks ago, Katara stood before him, menacing in her promises to take him down if he stepped out of line. Only a handful of hours ago, she stood before him, giving him a glimpse of the pain that raged inside of her all this time. But this - Zuko knows for a fact that not even Sokka has seen the way her lower lip trembles, or the way her shoulders slope downward. But Zuko himself is bearing witness to it and he knows just as well that this is changing everything between them.
"There's nothing repulsive about you," Zuko murmurs. He lifts a shoulder. "Okay, so I've never seen anyone blood bend before. I've seen plenty of people that want to kill, though, and what you wanted to do was nothing like that."
Zuko shifts, hesitates, then laces his fingers through Katara's. Her hand is shaking in his.
"You wanted revenge," he continues. "You wanted answers for the downright traumatizing thing that happened to you. That doesn't make you a bad person, Katara. I've seen men that wanted to kill just because they had the power to do so. No emotion behind it, just... Because they can. You're not like that."
He thinks of Zhao, who would have killed him after losing the Agni Kai if Uncle Iroh hadn't intervened. He thinks of Azula, who shot her own uncle with lightning, just because she could.
He remembers Katara, offering to help them, even though they had constantly been at each other's throats up until that moment.
Katara's shoulders begin to shake. It's not from the cold, not this time.
"Everyone kept telling me to just - let it go." Her voice catches on a sob. It echoes around them, the pain palpable. "But - how am I supposed to do that? My mother died to protect me and I'm supposed to just - just forgive and forget?"
In the glow of his fire light, Zuko can see tears rolling down Katara's cheeks. Somewhere behind them, the wind howls, as though the storm is responding to her anguish.
"I can't forgive him," Katara insists. "I can't, but Sokka and Aang, they're - they're gonna tell me how wrong I am for that, but I just can't do it." She inhales, trying to catch her breath. "That makes me a terrible person, and so does what I did to even get here."
"Katara."
His voice is so soft, so gentle, that it stills her. She finally looks at him, and the sadness reflected in the blue of her eyes is heartbreaking.
"It doesn't matter what Sokka and Aang think," Zuko says, voice still soft. "This isn't about them, this is about you." There's no hesitation this time as he lets go of her hand to put his on her shoulder instead. "You don't have to always think of them first, Katara. You're allowed to do something for yourself for once, no matter how - how intense it is." He gives her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "You're not repulsive, okay? Agni, you're a beautiful girl that's capable of great power, that's not repulsive."
Katara finally looks at him, eyes wide with shock, and it registers, what he said. The flush returns to his face, this time in full force. "I mean - that's not to say - you know -"
Zuko pulls his hand away quickly and lifts both, as if to defend himself, and in doing so, extinguishes the light in his hand, plunging them into pure darkness.
An exasperated sigh escapes him as he hangs his head. He isn't sure, but he thinks he can hear Katara trying to quiet her laughter. It doesn't embarrass him, for once, but warms him. That sound means the vibrancy she carries within her hasn't been completely burned out.
The darkness, though, makes it easier to speak. Katara can't see him blushing, and Zuko can't see her expressions.
"I meant what I said," he murmurs. "You're beautiful. Not just outside, you're beautiful on the outside, but it's what you carry inside that makes you beautiful, Katara. Being a human with real emotions and a beating heart could never make you repulsive. Especially not to me."
They understand each other in ways their friends never could, Zuko knows that now. His darkness was never hidden, but Katara never had the chance to show hers. Not until it festered after being forced down for so long. Here she is now, sharing it with him, of all people.
"Thank you, Zuko." Katara sounds closer now. He should create another light, but something holds him back. The moment between them is fragile and he doesn't want to shatter it. "I think I owe you an apology. For being so... Intense when you arrived. I shouldn't have threatened you like that. It's just that - I was so hurt when you chose Azula's side back in Ba Sing Se because I thought there was something happening between us."
Zuko presses his lips together. His desperation for his father's acceptance had blinded him back then, he knows that now. If he had been stronger, if he had been able to resist Azula's lies, so much could have changed.
"I don't have to ask to know that your scar is a sensitive subject for you. But you let me touch it, and you - you told me about your mother. I thought... I thought I could change you. Not you, but your heart."
A quiet sigh leaves him. "I had a lot to learn," Zuko admits, "And I had to learn the hard way, clearly. And I thought about that moment, I thought about it constantly. I messed up with everyone that night, but you were right. You were the first to trust me and I ruined it."
Katara's hand lands on his arm. Zuko finds himself acutely aware of the warmth pressing through the fabric of his sleeve. "I forgive you," she says.
Something in his chest cracks wide open, lets go of the tension he's been holding since he decided to leave behind his home.
"How could I not?" Katara's voice is so soft, he finds himself straining toward it to hear her properly. "Never in a million years would I have expected you to take me to find my mother's killer. Everyone else is always telling me to - to back down, they all expect me to hold it in and be perfect so I can keep things held together for them. You don't do that. I feel like I can just be myself around you, ugly parts and all."
Something soft touches his cheek, and when he realizes it's her lips, his heart skips several beats. A kiss is the last thing he expected, but now that it's been given, it's hard to ignore the touch starved part of him that craves affection so badly. Katara is still close, her breath warm on his skin, and so Zuko doesn't give himself a chance to think, simply acts. He turns his head, lips ghosting across her skin until they find hers.
One heart beat passes, one more follows, and then Katara is kissing him back.
It's soft, unexpectedly tender. Zuko finds himself leaning into her, finds himself all the more aware of the scant bit of space between them. Of all the things he could have imagined happening, this is not one of them. But he doesn't want to let it go, one hand reaching out to find hers in the darkness. Katara laces her fingers through his, as though she doesn't want the moment to end, either, and Zuko feels his heart constrict in his chest.
A strange glow surrounds them, breaking the moment. Zuko lifts his head with a frown to see that the ceiling above them is now alight, the crystals embedded in the rock shimmering and green. His mouth parts in shock. "What -"
This time, he hears Katara's laugh. "Wow," she says. "We found The Cave of Two Lovers."
"The what?"
Katara's smile is sweet. Exhaustion still lingers in her eyes, but the warmth has returned to them, something Zuko is grateful to see.
"It's a long story. But I guess we have time to talk about it." She looks to the path they'd taken. They've wandered far enough in that they can no longer see Appa at the entrance, but the crystals line the entire tunnel, providing them with light. The color is reminiscent of the crystals that had surrounded them in Ba Sing Se, taking Zuko back to that former life time.
Katara had been right, they were having a moment under those crystals, much like they are right now. The difference is that, this time, Zuko knows that they'll be leaving this cave on the same side.
Gently, Zuko slides his finger under Katara's chin, turns her head back to his. When he kisses her this time, it's sure, conveys all that he would struggle to say out loud.
Katara kisses him back, her hand still secure in his. She leans in to Zuko as she does. The faintest taste of the mango slices they'd shared earlier linger on her lips and he finds himself wanting to taste more of them on her tongue.
But not right now. When the kiss breaks, Zuko pulls Katara into his arms. He takes her weight with ease when she leans into him, feels her exhaustion and fragility as though its his own. "I've got you," Zuko whispers. "I promise, Katara, you're safe with me."
Her voice is so small as she says, "I know."
Several long minutes pass in silence before Katara drops her arms. She lets out a quiet breath and reaches for Zuko's hand, plays with his fingers for a moment. "We should get back to Appa," Katara says. "I'm sure he's hungry by now."
Zuko simply nods. He holds on to Katara's hand, eyes on the shape of her fingers laying over his hand. Things have changed between them yet again, he knows. There's a strange flutter in his stomach. What will happen next, he doesn't know, but for once, he doesn't mind. Something in his gut tells him that this won't be a one time event, and that's enough for him.
"So," Zuko says, looking up at the crystals above them, "This is The Cave of Two Lovers?"
"Well, this is the walk way to it, but there is a cave further down." Katara looks up at him with a small smile. "We met a group of nomads that told us about it. They drove Sokka crazy, it was hilarious. They even have a song about it."
"Huh. I'll have to ask Sokka, then. See if it still gets him worked up."
Katara's responding laugh is quiet, but it's genuine. Zuko squeezes her hand, looking ahead to see Appa's shaggy form coming into view. He knows that Katara's pain won't heal overnight. He knows that telling their friends about this experience isn't going to go over easy, either. But, for now, he isn't going to worry himself with it. The storm outside is passing, taking away the lingering tension that lived so long between them. It's the start of something new, and for Zuko, that is enough.